April 26, 2005
CEDAR RAPIDS, IA – The University of Iowa baseball team lost an 8-6 decision to Northern Iowa Tuesday night in the second annual Corridor Classic played in front of 1,813 fans at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium. The loss drops the Hawkeyes’ overall record to 18-18.
The Panthers scored two first inning runs on a Dave Westergaard two-out, two-run homer over the right field fence. The Hawkeyes tied the game at 2-2 in the top of the second when Dusty Napoleon and Kris Welker scored on a Northern Iowa error.
Iowa plated its third run in the top of the third before Northern Iowa scored five in the bottom of the third to re-claim a 7-3 advantage. The Panthers collected four hits during their rally, but all five runs were unearned due to three Hawkeye errors.
Iowa tallied three runs in the top of the sixth to trim Northern Iowa’s lead to 7-6. Travis Sweet scored the Hawkeyes’ fourth run on a Nate Price RBI-single to center. Three batters later, Nate Yoho singled home Price with two outs. Back-to-back walks plated Andy Lytle to score the Hawkeyes’ sixth and final run of the contest. The Panthers added an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth. Iowa was unable to generate any offense its final three at-bats, as the Northern Iowa bullpen silenced the Hawkeye bats, yielding no hits and allowing only one Iowa player to reach via an error by its third baseman.
Iowa out-hit Northern Iowa 9-8 in the loss, with Welker and Napoleon collecting two hits each to lead the Hawkeye offense.
Iowa hurler Jeff Maitland started his second game of the season. The junior lefthander threw 2 2/3 innings, allowed two earned runs, yielded six hits and struck out four. The Panthers’ Mark Bennett pitched 3 2/3 innings in collecting his second victory.
Iowa returns to action tomorrow night when the Hawkeyes host Western Illinois at 6 p.m. at Duane Banks Field.
GAME SUMMARYIowa 021 003 000 -- 6 9 3Northern Iowa 205 001 00x -- 8 8 2
WP: Mark Bennett (2-0)LP: Jeff Maitland (1-1)SV: Brandon Rinnan (2)="http:>