Hawkeyes down St Thomas in a high-scoring midweek contest
It wasn’t until the bottom of the eighth inning, when Gable Mitchell delivered his first career home run over the right field wall, that the Hawkeyes could finally exhale. Up until that point, St Thomas had kept themselves within striking distance for a potential midweek upset. The two-run home run, however, put the finishing touches on a 17-11 win over the Tommies. With the win, Iowa moves to 17-13 overall.
“The offense just kept coming after them and that was good to see, especially not having (Sam) Petersen and still being able to score runs like that when we needed to was a good sign,” said Coach Rick Heller. “They gave us some free bases with errors and helped us out a little bit, but overall, I thought the offense was solid.”
Before the two teams even showed up at the ballpark, the day got off to a bad start for the Hawkeyes. Slated to make his first start on the mound in an Iowa uniform, Ganon Archer slammed his finger in his car door on Tuesday, which forced Heller to scratch him from the lineup. Freshman Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue got the start in place of Archer and the game got sideways in the first inning.
“Archer was really trending up,” said Heller. “Thank goodness it wasn’t broken, but his fingernail is all black with blood under it. He couldn’t feel the ball real good today, but I think he’ll be able to go this weekend.”
“We bumped Lanoue up with all of the lefties (in their lineup), so it’d be a good matchup for him and he just didn’t have it tonight for whatever reason.”
Cadieux-Lanoue put the first two batters of the game on base with a hit by pitch and a walk. After going 2-0 to three-hitter Max Moris, Rick Heller decided to go to his fireman Jack Young after just nine pitches.
“Jack Young is in a good place, but I just keep putting him in terrible situations and he’s not going to be able to come through with bases loaded and nobody out all of the time.”
Young ended up walking Moris to load the bases with nobody out. Joe Roder followed with an RBI single to put St Thomas on the board, while hot hitting Matthew Maulik delivered a bases-clearing triple in the ensuing at-bat. A Brigs Richartz RBI groundout later and the Tommies led the Hawkeyes by five runs before a single batter in black-and-gold stepped to the plate.
Despite being without OF Sam Petersen (lower leg) and UTL Andy Nelson (hamstring) for the game, the Iowa offense was able to get the ball rolling with some runs in the third inning. Trailing 5-1 with the bases loaded, Davis Cop drove a ball over the head of CF Joe Vos and it bounced over the wall for a two-run ground rule double. Kyle Huckstorf tied the game with a two-run double down the left field line, while Connor Hennings gave the Hawkeyes a 6-5 lead, with an RBI triple into the alley in right-center field.
Early in the game, Iowa hitters had to adjust to St Thomas pitchers getting the benefit of calls on the far outside corner, but the took advantage of pitches in the zone in the third to get some offense going.
“I was worried it was going to be one of those nights where they just kind of lived on the edge or off and we weren’t getting a lot of pitches to hit,” said Heller. “We didn’t panic and eventually got some pitches to hit.”
The lead was short lived, as the Tommies regained the advantage off of Zach Voelker in the fourth inning. Back-to-back doubles from Joe Vos and Mikey Gottschalk to begin the inning tied the game at six runs apiece. After a Tanner Recchio bunt single, Ben Vujovich gave St Thomas the lead with an infield single. Four batters faced and four hits allowed signaled the end of the day for Voelker. Anthony Watts was able to get out of the inning, but not before a 4-6-3 RBI ground ball double play from Max Moris made it 8-6 Tommies.
In the sixth and seventh inning, the Hawkeyes took advantage of some help from St Thomas to build a healthy lead going into the final two innings. Reese Moore and Raider Tello each had hard hit RBI singles, but for the most part, the runs were quietly manufactured.
Three St Thomas errors, four free bases, two RBI infield hits, two RBI singles and two RBI fielder’s choice ground balls later, Iowa led 15-8. It looked like the Hawkeyes were going to coast to a victory, but the Tommies put up a pair of runs in the eighth on an RBI single from Ben Vujovich and a sacrifice fly from Joe Roder.
Finally, in the bottom of the eighth, Gable Mitchell delivered the knockout blow. A two-run home run, his first of his career, to make it 17-10. The Tommies got a run in the ninth inning, but Marcus Morgan was able to record the final out to close out a 17-11 win.
Although the final stat line for the Iowa pitching staff doesn’t look great, there were some solid performances from pitchers that had to step up. Without those outings, the Hawkeyes may have lost. Reece Beuter, Brant Hogue and Ben DeTaeye retired nine of the 11 batters they faced, with four strikeouts. Anthony Watts and Aaron Savary combined for 3.1 scoreless innings, retiring all 11 batters faced.
“It was a rough start obviously, but had some guys step up and slow things down, which was good to see,” said Heller. “Savary was good, Watts was good. It was great to see Brant Hogue back out there and he was really confident. Ben DeTaeye was really good in a tough situation, but mixed in there were some really, really rough ones. That’s kind of the way it’s gone at times this year.”
At the plate, five players finished with multiple hits, including four hits from Kyle Huckstorf and three hits from Connor Hennings. Four players finished with four RBI’s on the night, including three from Davis Cop who is now over 40 RBI’s (41) on the season to lead the team. Michael Seegers notably walked three times and scored four runs.
Up Next, the Hawkeyes will travel to Columbus, OH for a three-game series against the Ohio State Buckeyes. First pitch on Friday is set for 5:00pm CT on BTN+.
