Iowa Baseball Drops 2 of 3
IRVINE, Calif. – The Iowa baseball team staved off a UC Irvine comeback to win 12-10 in the Sunday series finale at Cicerone Field at Anteater Ballpark. The Hawkeyes (7-7) salvaged the final game of the series.
“It was great to see our guys go out and fight after two tough losses, games we could have won,” said Iowa head coach Rick Heller. “We needed to get a win today even though it wasn’t pretty. Sometimes you have to win these types of games.”
Iowa was cruising as it scored three runs in the top of the sixth inning to stretch its lead to 12-2 before the Anteaters tried to make a furious comeback.
UC Irvine scored three in the bottom of the sixth, two in the seventh and three more in the eighth to close the gap to 12-10. Iowa brought in reliever Luke Llewellyn with one out in the eighth and he walked the first batter he faced to load the bases.
The Kirkwood transfer then buckled down, getting a comebacker from Church for the second out before getting a fly out to center field to end the inning. Llewellyn then retired the Anteaters in the ninth 1-2-3 to record the save.
The Hawkeyes trailed 2-0 early before taking control with a seven-run third. Iowa sent 10 batters to the plate and erupted for seven runs on five hits to grab a 7-2 lead.
“We had a bunch of two-out hits,” said Heller. “We had 0-2 counts three times and kept winning (the at-bats). We scrapped and got some big hits.”
A squeeze bunt in the seventh inning sent UC Irvine to a 2-1 victory over Iowa baseball team on Saturday night. The win was the Anteaters’ fifth straight and it clinched the series win.
After falling behind 1-0, Iowa fought back to tie the game in the seventh against reliever Gordon Ingebritson. Sophomore Michael Seegers laced a triple down the right field line and scored on the play on an errant throw on the relay, tying the game at one.
The Anteaters regained the lead in the bottom half, starting with a one-out double from Ben Fitzgerald and a single from Connor McGuire through the left side. With runners on the corners, Jacob Castro laid down a squeeze bunt to make the score 2-1.
The manufactured run came against Iowa starter Dylan Nedved, who was strong in his first career start. The right-hander tallied a quality start, going seven innings – a career-best – allowing two runs on four hits and fanning four, but he was saddled with the loss.
“It was a lot better night than last night,” said head coach Rick Heller. “Dylan gave us a good start, but Irvine has been opportunistic with the hits they have gotten. They haven’t had many, but it seems like whenever they have runners in scoring position, they find a way to get a hit and it was no different tonight.”
Iowa’s late-inning rally came up short Friday night, as the Hawkeyes fell 7-6 at UC Irvine in the series opener.
Trailing by four runs through six innings, Iowa tried to fight back, plating three runs in the seventh and putting the tying run in scoring position in the final two innings.
Iowa started its rally when redshirt freshman Keaton Anthony’s RBI single cut the deficit to 7-4 in the seventh and senior Brett McCleary delivered a two-out, two-run single to close the gap to 7-6.
The Hawkeyes put the game-tying run at second base in both the eighth and ninth innings, but Anteater reliever Troy Taylor went through the heart of the order to preserve the lead, getting Peyton Williams to pop out to short and fanning Anthony to end the eighth.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes (7-7) close out their California road trip Tuesday, facing San Diego State at 8 p.m. (CT) at Tony Gwynn Stadium. There will be no live stream; fans can listen to the action via the Hawkeye Radio Network via The Varsity Network app.