April 21, 2007
IOWA CITY – The University of Iowa baseball team completed a doubleheader sweep of Illinois Saturday, taking game two 10-4 Saturday evening. Iowa raises its record to 17-15 (6-8), while Illinois falls to 17-16 (7-6).
After making good use of the long ball in game one, the Hawkeyes took an early 2-0 lead by manufacturing a pair of runs in the bottom of the first.
Jason White was hit by a pitch to lead off the game, and moved to second on a sacrifice bunt from Travis Sweet – who reached on the play due to a throwing error. Both runners moved up a base on a wild pitch, and White scored on an RBI groundout off the bat of Dusty Napoleon. Caleb Curry then plated Sweet with a sacrifice fly.
Iowa added another two in the bottom of the second when Sweet and Napoleon each recorded an RBI single. In the third, the Hawkeyes picked up three runs with two outs, getting an RBI single from Kody McManis, a run-scoring double from Justin Toole and an RBI single from White.
Illinois began chipping away in the top of the fourth, taking advantage of a Hawkeye throwing error to score a trio of runs. The Fighting Illini added another in the fifth to cut the lead to 7-4 on an RBI groundout off the bat of Lars Davis.
Hawkeye reliever Kyle Hiem, who replaced starter Casey O’Rourke in the fifth, pitched his way out of a one-out jam in the top of the sixth to turn away a potential Illinois rally. In the bottom of the inning, Iowa added three insurance runs, highlighted by triples from Sweet and Curry.
Sweet ended the day 3-of-3 with three runs scored. O’Rourke earned the win, allowing just four runs (two earned) over four and 1/3 innings.
Iowa and Illinois will wrap-up the four-game series Sunday at 1 p.m.
GAME SUMMARYIllinois 000 310 0 -- 4 9 3Iowa 223 003 x -- 10 10 3
WP - Casey O'Rourke (3-1)LP - Billy Barrett (1-2)="http:>