Hawkeyes fall to Maryland in the Big Ten Tournament Championship
For the first time since 2015, the Iowa Baseball team traveled to the Big Ten Tournament with an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament nearly locked up. The Hawkeyes cruised through the first three games to reach the tournament final and make their appearance in a regional a certainty. However, just because a regional appearance was locked up doesn’t mean the sting of losing in front of a sea of black and gold isn’t the same. The Hawkeyes fell to regular season champion Maryland 4-0 in the Omaha finale.
“We’re going to let it hurt for a little bit, it’s going to sting not being able to perform this stage and get that ring,” said Marcus Morgan. “We’ve got a really resilient group of guys…just get right back on the horse and get back to work and show up and make a run in a regional.”
The Hawkeye offense had flourished on late inning runs in this tournament, despite early chances to score runs in each game. Today, it was four straight innings with runners in scoring position, but no runs scored. However, instead of a late inning rally to pick up a win, the Maryland pitching staff held Iowa to just two baserunners over the last five innings.
“When we had opportunities, we didn’t do damage and that was the difference in the game,” said head coach Rick Heller. “The disappointing thing for me is that so many Hawk fans came out for us today and the support was just tremendous and to not find a way to get it done is painful…I just wish we could have got the offense going and scored some runs and at least made it a little more interesting at the end.”
The top of the first inning got off to a promising start, but the Hawkeyes couldn’t strike first. Sam Petersen drew a one out walk, which was followed by a Brennen Dorighi single. Petersen was unable to get to third, as he tripped going around second base. That proved to be costly, as Raider Tello flew out in his next at-bat. A fly ball that would have driven in Petersen to put Iowa on top 1-0.
“Petersen falls down going around second or we would have had a run that inning on a sac fly,” said Heller. “Probably would have let everybody relax and little bit and the bad luck, I think, morphed into pressing.”
Iowa had runners in scoring position in the second, third and fourth inning, but were 0/5 and the Terrapins were able to escape with no runs against them. Kenny Lippman and David Falco were the next arms out of the Maryland bullpen and they were nearly flawless. The two combined to go 5.2 innings, with four strikeouts and just one hit allowed.
“When Lippman came in for Maryland, I thought he really pounded the zone and we only had on free base after the third inning. It was a bigger zone umpire today and we weren’t able to get into counts that we were wanting to get into,” said Heller. “They made pitches when they had to and they pitched us really tough in the second half of the game and really didn’t falter much.”
On the other side, the Iowa pitching staff did not have a bad day, in fact, they gave the Hawkeyes a chance to win. However, it was going to be hard to beat the zero that the Terps pitching staff put up. Marcus Morgan got the start on the mound and retired six of the seven hitters he faced through two innings. With a regional start on the near horizon, Marcus turned it over to the bullpen after 28 pitches, but it was still a solid start to get the game underway.
“I think the goal was to come out, set the tone with whatever they were going to let me go and I was lucky enough to do that,” said Morgan. “It was just a day where a couple of things didn’t go our way, left a lot of runners on. We battled and compteted and hats off to Maryland, they’re a great team.”
Aaron Savary was the first reliever out of the bullpen for the Hawkeyes, but his day was cut short after just five batters. Two walks and a hit by pitch loaded the bases with two outs, but Jack Whitlock came in and put out the fire with a strikeout of Ian Petrutz to end the threat.
Whitlock got through 2.1 innings, but it was just two missed spots in 37 pitches that let Maryland get on the board. Kevin Keister put the Terps on top 2-0 in the fifth inning with his ninth home run of the season. Nick Lorusso added a solo home run later in the inning and two breaking balls left over the heart of the plate proved to be the difference.
“As far as offense, it was pretty much even, in fact, we had way more traffic,” said Heller. “They hit the long ball and they did damage. We didn’t do damage.”
An inning later in the sixth, Jacob Orr drove in Eddie Hacopian with an RBI single to extend the lead to 4-0. With Lippman and Falco in a rhythm on the mound, the Hawkeyes were running out of time for a rally.
Iowa showed a bit of life in the ninth, after Raider Tello led the inning off with a single. The crowd started to back their team and Sam Hojnar nearly cut the lead in half, but his long fly ball came up just short of the right field wall and was just a bit foul. Hojnar went on to strikeout swinging and Michael Seegers grounded into a 5-4-3 double play to end the game.
“For down the road, I think being in the environment that we were in today will make next week much more normal,” said Heller. “Regardless of the outcome today it was super beneficial having the awesome crowd come out for us and put our guys in a little bit different situation than they’re normal in.”
Although Hawkeye fans have grown accustomed to having to win the Big Ten Tournament to make the NCAA Tournament, that is not the case this season. A Big Ten Championship and rings for all the players would have been cool, but Iowa is looking to damage in a regional next weekend.
“The good thing about this is that it’s not a goodbye this year and that’s the hard part when you lose a game like this if you’re not going. Then it’s goodby to a lot of the guys who won’t be coming back and it’s a really sad emotional trip home,” said Heller. “It’s not going to be a very fun bus ride home, but when the sun comes up tomorrow it’s going to be gone and we’ll meet and gather and start preparing as soon as we know where we’re going.”
“It’ll be a happy day and a reward for an incredible season for a bunch of guys who brought it every single day from day one and have overcome so much here in the last 12-14 games…I believe that this team can be back here (in Omaha) in a couple of weeks if we play like we’re capable of.”
Up next for the Hawkeyes…
With the loss, Iowa falls to 42-14 on the season. They are two wins short of tying the program record set by the 1981 team coached by Duane Banks. The Hawkeyes will learn their NCAA regional assignment tomorrow, as the field of 64 will be announced at 11:00am CT. The selection show will be televised on ESPN2.
