Feb. 23, 2007
LITTLE ROCK, AR – The University of Iowa baseball team opened up the 2007 season with an 8-2 loss at Arkansas-Little Rock Friday afternoon.
Senior Scott Brune (0-1) took the loss in relief, while Ashur Tolliver (2-0) picked up the win for the Trojans.
The Hawkeyes started off well, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the second when sophomore second baseman Justin Toole drew a bases-loaded walk. Dusty Napoleon and Wes Freie led of the inning with back-to-back walks, and Brian Burmester loaded the bases with a single. The next two batters struck out, but Toole was patient at the plate and brought home the games first run with a base on balls.
Iowa took a 2-0 lead in the top of the fourth when Burmester was hit by a pitch, stole second and came home on a double off the bat of Matt Wookdrik.
Arkansas-Little Rock tied the game in the bottom of the inning with a two-run home run from Osvaldo Torres. Things remained knotted 2-2 until the bottom of the sixth, when the Trojans took advantage of a bout of wildness from Brune and a costly error. A single, walk and hit batsman loaded the bases, and another hit batsman brought home the go-ahead run. After a strikeout, Brad Swiderski hit a fly ball to the rightfield warning track that bounced out of Wooldrik’s glove and cleared the bases. Ryan Gotcher followed that up with a double down the line that plated Swiderski, giving the Trojans a 7-2 advantage.
Arkansas-Little Rock added an insurance run in the seventh and held the Hawkeyes off the board the rest of the way.
David Conroy threw well in the start, allowing two runs off just two hits in three and a third innings. The game also saw the Hawkeye debut of pitcher Danny Bales, who missed his first two seasons with an arm injury. Bales impressed, allowing two hits and one run over two innings while striking out four.
“Had some opportunities today, but we just couldn’t get the clutch hit when we needed it,” Head Coach Jack Dahm said. “Conroy threw well for us today, Bales and Brune both threw well in relief, but we gave up one big inning with some mistakes. That cost us. We have to be fundamentally sound and stay away from big inning. We’ll learn from it and bounce back. We did a lot of good things today. Being first time outside, we may have tried do to much at times.”
Iowa and Arkansas-Little Rock will play game two of the series tomorrow at 1 p.m.
GAME SUMMARYIowa 010 100 000 -- 2 5 2Arkansas-LR 000 205 10x -- 8 7 0
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