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Iowa

Errors bite the Hawkeyes, fall 9-6 to Oregon State

On3 imageby: Kyle Huesmann05/10/25HuesmannKyle
The Hawkeyes dropped the series opener to Oregon State in Des Moines. (Photo by Dennis Scheidt)
The Hawkeyes dropped the series opener to Oregon State in Des Moines. (Photo by Dennis Scheidt)

Three phases. That’s what Coach Rick Heller preaches to his team every single day. Clean pitching, clean fielding and quality at-bats. If you can do that on a consistent basis, you’re going to win games. On Friday night at Principal Park, errant throws by pitchers in key fielding situations ended up being the difference. The Hawkeyes upset bid against #10 Oregon State came up short, as they gave away four unearned runs in the 9-6 loss.

“If your best players don’t play well when you need them to, you’re not going to win,” said head coach Rick Heller. “Unfortunately, a couple of our better players had rough nights…Had we played clean on the mound tonight there was a good chance we could have got them.”

With the loss, the Hawkeyes fall to 32-16 on the season and have now lost four of their last five games.

Players of the Game

  • RHP Justin Hackett: Hackett was great out of the bullpen, tossing 3.0 scoreless innings, including seven strikeouts to one walk and no hits allowed.
  • 1B Caleb Wulf: Wulf led the way with a team-high three hits, including an RBI single in the fourth inning.
  • OF Ben Wilmes: Wilmes scored three runs, reaching base three times, including a single and double.

Cade Obermueller struggles with command; Beavers open up a six-run lead

Coming off of an early exit in his start at Washington, Cade Obermueller was looking to bounce back on a big stage up against a top ten Oregon State squad. However, instead of rebounding with a strong start, Cade was shaky with his command and made a couple of costly errors.

He opened with the game with a pair of scoreless innings, working around a single in each inning, but ran into trouble in the third inning. After issuing a leadoff walk to Trent Caraway, leadoff hitter Aiva Arquette laid down a sac bunt, but Obermueller whipped the ball down the right field, putting two in scoring position with no outs. Back-to-back RBI singles from Wilson Weber and AJ Singer put OSU on top 2-0.

“Shaky is a good word,” said Heller. “Just not himself and not dialed into the strike zone like he was for about four weeks in a row. Tonight, it was the pitching errors. I think that got him going fast, took him out of his game, and he wasn’t as sharp after that…having to go to the bullpen that early was not in the plans.”

Cade was able to strike out Carson McEntire to leave the bases loaded in the third inning, which at the time, felt important, holding OSU to just two runs. He didn’t last long in the fourth after allowing a single and getting a groundout. Obermueller allowed three runs, one earned on five hits over 3.1 innings, including five strikeouts to two walks. He threw just 47 of his 81 (58.0%) pitches for strikes.

The coaching staff opted to go with Sam Hart out of the bullpen, as his stuff matched up well with the OSU lineup, but the Beavers hit him hard. Aiva Arquette drove in a run with an RBI single, while Gavin Turley followed with an RBI double down the left field line to make it 4-0 OSU. The big blow came an at-bat later. Wilson Weber delivered his third hit of the game, a two-run shot to left field, opening up a commanding 6-0 lead.

Hawkeye offense chips into the deficit in the fourth and fifth inning

It looked like Iowa had put themselves in a tight spot, trailing 6-0, while OSU starter Eric Segura faced the minimum number of batters through three innings. However, Rick Heller’s Hawkeyes dialed in on Segura and got some traffic going on the bases.

A couple of free bases helped put Iowa in position to score some runs with runners on the corners and just one out. Caleb Wulf laced an RBI single through the left side to get the Hawkeyes on the board. After a Daniel Rogers walk, Miles Risley bounced a single up the middle and it deflected off of shortstop Aiva Arquette and into centerfield, allowing two runs to score. That knocked Segura out of the game, and although reliver Laif Palmer got Kellen Strohmeyer to bounce into a 4-6-3 double play, Iowa was back in the game with a three spot on the board.

Segura allowed three runs on three hits over 3.1 innings, including four strikeouts to four walks. He threw 41 of his 77 (53.2%) pitches for strikes.

“The plan was to not chase (Segura’s) fastball. He’s got some ride, and it really jumps out of his hand. We were making it easy on him for a couple of innings,” said Heller. “We finally settled in and just stopped swinging at balls…guy settled in, I think they got their feet under them a little bit and we were able to work some counts and work some at-bats against him.”

“After we gave them four, to answer back with three, it let everybody know that we aren’t going to go home, we’re just going to keep playing. They always kept fighting.”

Facing Palmer, who came into the game with a 0.84 ERA, the Hawkeyes got a run on the board in the fifth inning to keep the momentum rolling. Ben Wilmes reached with a one out double, while Reese Moore came up with a clutch two-out hit. He pulled a single into right field and it skipped past right fielder Easton Talt, allowing Moore to get all the way to third base, while Wilmes scored easily from second base.

Justin Hackett settles the game down, gives the best outing of his collegiate career

It was not Rick Heller’s plan to turn to Justin Hackett in the fifth inning, but it worked out as well as it possibly could have. Trending in the right direction for several weeks, Hackett finally got his chance to make a big impact on the weekend. He was stellar, tossing 3.0 scoreless innings to settle the game down and give the offense a chance to fight back.

“He’s been trending up for about three weeks, maybe even closer to four weeks, but all of us have a ton of confidence in him right now. His ability to throw the change up for a strike when he wants to, it gives him a chance to get anybody out,” said Heller. “He believes in himself, he’s a winner and he wants the ball. He gave us a chance to come back and win that game.”

Hackett retired nine of the ten batters he faced, including seven strikeouts. The lone batter that reached, Tyce Peterson, got on with a two-out walk in the fifth, but Trent Caraway went down on strikes to end the inning. He threw 33 of his 54 (61.1%) pitches for strikes.

Gable Mitchell ties the game with a two-run blast in the 7th inning

While Justin Hackett gave the Hawkeyes a chance on the mound, trailing 6-4, the offense still needed to hold up on their end and complete the comeback.

Ben Wilmes reached base with a one out single to left field, bringing Gable Mitchell to the plate to face incoming reliever Kellan Oakes. Mitchell got a 2-2 pitch he liked from Oakes and pulled a two-run home run over the wall in right field to tie the game.

It’s not the first time that Mitchell has gone deep at Principal Park. Last season, against Florida International, in the Saturday series finale, Gable hit a solo home run into the right field bleachers in the Hawkeyes 16-4 run-rule victory.

Oregon State takes the lead on a critical error in the 8th inning

Tied 6-6 in the top of the eighth inning, Rick Heller turned to Anthony Watts out of the bullpen, looking to get six outs from the Hawkeyes premier bullpen arm for a chance to steal the game at the plate.

A pair of free bases put Oregon State in a run scoring position with nobody out. Pinch-hitter Dawson Santana popped up a bunt, while Watts got Aiva Arquette to fly out, putting him on the brink of escaping the jam. However, in the ensuing at-bat, Watts got ahead 0-2 on Gavin Turley, but walked him, loading the bases with two outs. The most important at-bat of the game brought Wilson Weber to the plate with his three hits. He hit a slow 0-1 roller that Watts fielded left of the mound, but he, like Cade did earlier in the game, threw it down the right field line, allowing three runs to score.

“If you’re going to have three pitcher errors and give Oregon State on a Friday night, six runs on free bases, you’re never going to win.”

Oregon State reliever Kellan Oakes retired six straight Hawkeyes to end the game. In a game where Iowa lost 9-6, they gave the Beavers four unearned runs.

What’s next for Rick Heller and Co?

The Hawkeyes will try to avoid dropping their second consecutive series on Saturday afternoon at Principal Park. Iowa will start right-hander Aaron Savary on the mound, while it will be right-hander Dax Whitney for Oregon State.

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