Hawkeyes take down St Thomas in midweek action
To make a basketball reference in the month of March, the Iowa Baseball team needed to see one go through the hoop. They needed to see some hits fall and they needed to see some zeros on the scoreboard from their pitching staff. For the most part, both happened and the Hawkeyes picked up a 9-3 victory over St Thomas on Tuesday afternoon.
“Much better, much cleaner, lots of positives on the mound,” said Coach Rick Heller. “I thought the offense was steady. Kept putting pressure on, scoring runs. Big hit by Blake Guerin, Michael Seegers had a big game, was good to see him bounce back.”
The Hawkeyes got on the board early in the game and did their damage with two outs. In the second inning, Gable Mitchell bounced a two out, RBI single up the middle to drive in Andy Nelson. In the third, Blake Guerin came up big with a two out, two-run single to left field. That scored a pair of runs and the Hawkeyes led 3-0.
Michael Seegers the game with three hits, but none were bigger than his three-run home run in the fifth inning. Leading 4-0, Seegers got a 3-1 pitch that he liked and hit it off of the scoreboard in left field to make it 7-0 Hawkeyes. Rick Heller liked what he saw from his senior shortstop at the plate.
“I felt like he wasn’t (chasing) out of the zone and that’s what’s been getting him in trouble. Expanding, trying to put the ball in play and not strikeout, which makes him end up chasing,” said Heller. “Just looked comfortable for the first time in a while. Stayed on a breaking ball and drove it over the shortstops head. I just think he needed to see something go his way and Michael might be ready to go on a little tear hopefully.”
On the mound, things started off a little shaky, as freshman Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue walked the bases loaded in the first inning. Luckily, he was able to settle in and retire the next five hitters he faced, for a scoreless 2.0 inning outing.
“That was good to see him work out of it and also bounce back with a really solid second inning,” said Heller. “Take out those three bases and I think we only had six tonight, which was a big improvement from where we’ve been the last few games.”
The Hawkeye pitching staff held the Tommies scoreless for the first six innings of the game. Reece Beuter tossed a scoreless inning, while Jack Young got through 1.1 innings. Caleb Strack also put up a zero, getting some help from an impressive 5-4-3 double play turn that included a bounce pass to second base from Raider Tello.
“Good to see Reece back out there and have a clean inning. Hopefully he can take a deep breath and just start pitching like he can and be a big boost to our bullpen,” said Heller. “Jack Young did a great job, came in a dirty inning. Went back out and gave us another clean inning. I think Jack’s confidence is in a good place.”
Things did get a little tight in the seventh inning. Joe Vos put the Tommies on the board with an RBI triple, while Ben Taxdahl followed with an RBI groundout to cut the lead to 7-2. Later in the inning, a wild pitch from Anthony Watts allowed Owen Bond to score to make it 7-3.
After a quick inning for Iowa, St Thomas was back at the plate, but Sam Hart put together a quick 1-2-3, 11-pitch inning to keep the Tommies from really making things interesting.
In the bottom of the eighth, the Hawkeyes put the game away, with some help from the UST defense. A couple of errors and a hit by pitch loaded the bases for Andy Nelson. He drew a walk and Kyle Hucktsorf followed with an RBI 4-6 fielder’s choice ground ball. That made it 9-3 Iowa. Aaron Savary came on for the ninth and recorded a pair of strikeouts to close out the Hawkeye win.
“Sam Hart was really good tonight and Sam can be like that. That’s the guy that we need on the back end of the bullpen and then Aaron Savary continued to just pound the zone and throw strikes,” said Heller. “I just feel a lot better heading into the weekend after tonight’s performance on the mound.”
Up Next, the Hawkeyes will head south for a three-game series against the Jacksonville State Gamecocks. First pitch on Friday is set for 6:00pm CT on ESPN+.
