Feb. 24, 2008
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CLEARWATER, FL– The Hawkeyes dropped their second game of the Clearwater Invitational Sunday morning, in a 3-1 loss to the Liberty Flames. Iowa, who lost a 10-inning marathon late last night, struggled in a loss, having to play less than ten hours later.
Sophomore Michael Jacobs (0-1) picked up the loss, while David Stokes (1-0) received the win for the Flames. Stokes pitched seven and one-third innings, only allowing one Hawkeye run with six hits, seven strikeouts and no walks.
“[David] Stokes pitched a very good game,” Coach Jack Dahm said. “He is a strike thrower and he kept us off balance. We had several opportunities but we didn’t take advantage of them.”
The Hawkeyes scored its lone run in the first inning, when Justin Toole reached first on an error, advanced to second on a wild pitch and Caleb Curry hit him in with a single to center. Curry went 2-for-4 and had the single Hawkeye RBI. Kevin Hoef also hit well for the Hawkeyes, going 2-for-4 and recording his 31st career hit-by-pitch, tying Ian Mattice as Iowa’s all-time leader.
Jacobs threw well in the start, pitching six innings. He allowed four hits, struck out three and gave up two earned runs. The Hawkeye bullpen, consisting of Zach Kenyon and Andrew Porter, pitched three innings and allowed four hits and one earned run.
Liberty started things off in the first; Errol Hollinger started with a one out walk, advanced to second on a wild pitch and Aaron Grijalva single to left for a two-out RBI. The Flames took the lead in the fifth when Cody Brown led off the inning with a single to right, followed by a Tim Rotola sacrifice bunt that moved Brown to second. Aaron Phillips then singled up the middle for an RBI, to give Liberty a 2-1 lead.
Liberty added an insurance run in the ninth with P.K. Keller’s solo home run and held the Hawkeyes off the board in the bottom on the ninth.
“It was a tough turnaround from a tough loss last night,” Dahm said. “The rain changed our schedule, but I think we played well despite it. We played tough against Notre Dame and Liberty who are both very talented ball clubs. We had two tough losses, but that’s baseball. There is a fine line between wins and losses and our guys are seeing that.”
Iowa will travel to Nashville, TN for the Music City Classic to face Xavier on Feb. 29. First pitch is set for noon.
GAME SUMMARY
Iowa 100 000 000 --- 3 8 2
Liberty 100 010 001 --- 1 7 0
WP-Stokes (1-0)
LP-Jacobs (0-1)
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