May. 1, 2005
EVANSTON, IL –
The University of Iowa baseball team avoided a sweep at the hands of Northwestern Sunday when they took a 6-5 victory in 11 innings. The Hawkeyes are now 19-22 with a 12-8 mark in the Big Ten. They are tied with Minnesota for second place, two games behind Illinois. Northwestern falls to 21-18, 10-10 in the conference.
Trailing 5-4 in the late innings, the Hawkeyes tied things up with one swing when Kris Welker smacked a solo home run over the centerfield fence to lead off the eighth. After the Wildcats recorded a pair of outs, Andy Cox ripped a double and Justin Petty reached on an error, but the potential go ahead runs were left stranded. Neither team scored in the ninth, and the game headed to extra innings.
Northwestern threatened to end the game in the bottom of the tenth with back-to-back two-out singles that put the winning run at third, but Hawkeye closer Tim Gudex got Luke Sundheim to ground out to Andy Lytle at short and end the inning.
The Hawkeyes struck in the top of the eleventh when Nate Price reached with a one-out single, then stole second and third before Lytle brought him home with a double to center. The senior shortstop was 3-of-6 with three RBIs on the day.
Gudex came out for his fourth inning of work in the bottom of the eleventh, and ran into a little trouble before closing the door. The Wildcats loaded the bases with one out before Gudex induced a popout and groundout to get his seventh win of the year.
Senior Jeff Maitland made his first Big Ten start since returning from the elbow injury that kept him sidelined since 2003. He threw three and a third innings, allowed just two hits and struck out six.
Iowa will face Wisconsin-Milwaukee in a doubleheader Wednesday at Banks Field. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.
GAME SUMMARYIOWA 210 010 010 01 -- 6 14 2NU 002 120 000 00 -- 5 10 4
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