Offense aplenty: Hawkeyes defeat Southern in the weekend opener

More often than not, the Friday opener is a pitcher’s duel. Both teams are putting their best arms out there and trying to get a win to jumpstart a successful weekend. Today, it was the opposite. Weather conditions in Mobile favored an offensive day and the Hawkeye bats stayed hot, as they defeated Southern University 20-8 in an offensive slugfest.

FINAL SCORE

Iowa 20
Southern 8

Hawkeyes move to 7-1 on the season. pic.twitter.com/9KUCodvewM

— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) March 3, 2023

“I kind of felt like during BP, we were a little lethargic and it really was the traveling because I felt it,” said assistant coach Marty Sutherland during the radio postgame. “It’s something a lot of people don’t take into consideration with us northern teams with the travel we’re doing. These guys were up at 3:30 in the morning Thursday, middle of the night.”

“Just really proud of them to gut it out the way they did. We ended up with 13 two out RBI’s. We had two grand slams with two outs and those are back breakers.”

Southern was the team with the energy early and they jumped out to a lead in the opening inning off of starter Ty Langenberg. Singles from Jaylen Armstrong and Khyle Radcliffe to start the game set the table for preseason All-SWAC selection O’Neil Burgos. He delivered an RBI double, while Nathaniel Lai followed with a sacrifice fly to make it 2-0 Jaguars.

Langenberg got into more trouble in the second inning and Southern was able to add to their total. Two walks and a bunt single loaded the bases with no outs, but Ty was able to escape with just one run allowed. From there, he was able to settle down and give the Hawkeyes five innings. He allowed four runs (three earned) on six hits, while accumulating six walks to four strikeouts.

“Ty, for the most part, wasn’t very sharp at all, but was able to figure out a way, especially in the third, fourth and fifth, of extending his outing and getting through five, which was big,” said Sutherland.

At the plate, the Hawkeyes had Ty’s back. After Southern went up in the top of the first, the top of the Iowa lineup answered back. Back-to-back RBI singles from Brennen Dorighi and Sam Petersen tied the game at 2.

Then in the third inning, trailing 3-2, the Hawkeyes up a crooked number and took over control of the game. Rick Heller’s squad plated eight runs, including a grand slam from Chase Moseley and a two-run double from Brennen Dorighi. All the sudden, a slow start from Iowa turned into a 10-3 lead.

Michael Seegers clubbed a solo home run in fifth inning to make it 11-4 Hawkeyes, but Southern fought back in the sixth inning after Keaton Anthony came in relief of Langenberg.

“Unfortunately, we gave them a lot of things, especially free bases,” said Sutherland. “We walked nine of ten, made a couple of errors and those things are generally hard to survive.”

A walk and an error kickstarted a rally for the Jaguars in the sixth. Three straight hits, including a two-run single from Hunter Tabb cut the Iowa lead all the way down to 11-8. The comfortable lead was no longer comfortable, but as we have seen several times in this young season, the Hawkeyes added some late inning runs.

A Michael Seegers RBI single in the bottom of the sixth made it 12-8, but it was another crooked number in the eighth inning that ensured an Iowa victory.

“In that last inning, we won three 3-2 counts offensively with Wilmes to get it going and then a couple other guys setting the table and just putting the next guy in a great situation.”

Cade Moss was the third guy to win a 3-2 count in the eighth and he delivered a two-run single to push the lead to 14-8. A couple of bases loaded walks added to the total, but it was the Sam Hojnar 108 mph rocket grand slam that was the knockout blow. That put the Hawkeyes up 20-8.

True freshman Cade Obermueller came on for his first weekend appearance and retired the side with a strikeout looking to clinch the 20-8 victory over Southern University.

“I thought we were a little undisciplined, especially early in this game with chasing (pitches out of the zone) and that is going to be a big part tomorrow,” said Sutherland. “Ten punchouts, I’d like to see that cut in half on a day like today, but that’s the way it goes. Guys fought and that’s all you can ask for.”

Five Hawkeyes recorded two hits on the day, while Michael Seegers led with three hits. Brennen Dorighi, Sam Hojnar and Chase Moseley all had four RBI’s. In total, eight hitters had a hit and six hitters had an RBI. The Hawkeyes racked up eight extra base hits and three home runs. The offense has now scored 70 runs in the first eight games (8.75 per gm).

PLAYER OF THE GAME: SS Michael Seegers (1st) – 3 H, 3 R, 2 RBI, HR, 2B

Seegers was retired in his first two at bats, but reached base in his last four. He had a solo home run in the fifth inning to make it 11-4 Hawkeyes. He ended up with three hits on the day and came up a triple short of the cycle.

Up next for the Hawkeyes…

With the win, Iowa moves to 7-1 on the season and have now won four games in a row. Up next, the Hawkeyes will face host South Alabama. The Jaguars face Pepperdine in their weekend opener this evening. First pitch is set for 6:30pm and it will streamed on ESPN+. Marcus Morgan will take the mound for Iowa, while it will be Gehrig Conard for South Alabama.