April 20, 2007
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa Hawkeye baseball team fell to the University of Illinois Fighting Illini, 6-2, Friday night at Duane Banks Field. Illinois improves to 17-14 (8-4) and the Hawkeyes fall to 15-15 (4-8).
The Hawkeyes got on the board early, but could not maintain the lead. Travis Sweet tripled to left center and scored on a Caleb Curry sacrifice fly. In the second inning, Justin Toole singled and Ben Geelen reached after being hit by a pitch. In their half of the inning, Illinois posted a run, evening the score, 1-1.
“We had opportunities early on, with a good first inning by Steve Turnbull, but the second inning really hurt,” said Head Coach Jack Dahm. With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Matt Wooldrik singled and advanced to second when Kevin Hoef walked. Brian Burmester singled to load the bases. However, the Hawkeyes were unable to score.
“It wasn’t a very well played game, both sides had four errors,” said Coach Dahm. “We left too many guys on base and made too many errors.” Despite posting four errors, Iowa’s defense had some strong moments. The sixth inning ended when Illinois’ Brandon Wikoff was caught stealing home. In the top of the ninth, Illinois’ Daniel Webb hit a double to single and was called safe at second, but stepped off the bag and was tagged out by Iowa’s Jason White.
Steve Turnbull threw 5 2/3 innings, striking out three and allowing two earned runs. Scott Brune threw 2 1/3 innings, giving up two hits and two runs.
“Our guys were a little tight and not playing relaxed baseball. We need to learn from our mistakes and put this behind us,” said Coach Dahm.
Illinois tallied two runs in the sixth, improving their lead to 6-1. The Hawkeyes added a run in the ninth, after an error by Illinois’, making the score 6-2.
Leading the Hawkeye offense was White who was 3-5 with one run scored. Sweet added a hit and a run.
The two teams will play a doubleheader tomorrow, with game one scheduled for 2:00 p.m. at Duane Banks Field.
GAME SUMMARYIllinois 011 110 200 -- 6 12 4IOWA 100 000 001 -- 2 10 4
WP: Tanner Roark (4-0) LP: Steve Turnbull (2-2)
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