Feb. 29, 2008
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NASHVILLE, TN- After losing against Liberty at the Clearwater Invitational with no errors, the Hawkeyes pulled out a win, 12-9, Friday night against Xavier with three costly errors. The Hawkeyes had 15 hits and took advantage of five Musketeer errors to propel them to a 2-2 record. The Hawkeyes only allowed three earned runs in the contest and Brock Alberts got the win, pitching five and one-third innings only giving up five hits and striking out ten.
“[Brock] just keeps getting better and better,” Coach Jack Dahm said. “He came in when we were down by five and he did what a good reliever does and held them at bay until we could come back a score. He was dominant on the mound today, and really brought his good stuff. His fastball and slider were working great.”
The Musketeers scored first in the second inning with a leadoff Zac Richard solo homerun. The Hawkeyes then got two quick outs, but Xavier didn’t fade. Jordan Conley reached on an error by Justin Toole, Billy O’Conner singled to right, and John McCambridge reached on a walk. With the bases loaded, Adam Pasono then doubled down the left field line to score three. To make it a 4-0 Xavier lead.
The Hawkeyes struck back in bottom of the second, with a Kyle Riffel doubled down the left field line, followed by a single to center by Wes Freie. A walk by Kurtis Muller loaded the bases, and Kevin Hoef delivered with a two RBI double to left field. Muller later scored from third on a Caleb Curry ground out, making it a 4-3 game.
Iowa kept at it in the third, with a leadoff single by Matt Mossey who advanced to second on an error, Mossey later scored on a one-out Riffel single to center. Muller continued with a single to first base and Riffel advanced to second. Riffel then stole third and scored on an error by the catcher, giving Iowa a 5-4 lead.
The Musketeers exploded in the fourth scoring five runs on five hits and taking advantage of two Hawkeye errors. It started with a Jack Bonnikson single to right center, followed by a Conley single to center. O’Conner then reached on a Hoef fielding error and all runners then advanced a base on a Hoef throwing error, Bonnikson scored. McCambridge continued the Musketeer rally with a two RBI single to center to make it a 9-5 Xavier ball game. Alberts then made his season debut, replacing Nick Erdman in the fourth. Erdman pitched three and two-thirds innings, giving up eight hits and three earned runs, while striking out five.
After scoring two in the fifth, Iowa took the lead in the seventh, causing two Xavier pitching changes. It started with Riffel reaching first on a hit-by-pitch. Freie then singled to left, Hoef also reached base by a hit-by-pitch causing a pitching change. Mike Creevy took the place of Brett Greenwell with two outs, and gave up a two RBI single to Toole. Iowa continued to score with Curry’s RBI single followed by a two RBI Blaser double down the left field line.
In the Iowa win, Toole was 3-for-5 with three RBI and two stolen bases. Curry and Riffel extended their hitting streak to four games, combining for three RBI. Hoef became Iowa’s career hit-by-pitch leader with a total of 32 and went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Freie went 3-for-5 with a homerun.
“We made mistakes today, and we let it have a snowball effect,” Dahm said. “Last weekend, in two of the three games we didn’t do that. Our mistakes led to their big innings, and we need to improve on that. That being said, our guys swung the bat really well and really tried to take advantage of guys in scoring position.”
Iowa will compete against #7 Vanderbilt tomorrow in the Music City Classic. First pitch is set for 4 p.m.
GAME SUMMARYXavier 040 500 000 - 9 11 5Iowa 032 020 50x - 12 15 3
WP-Alberts (1-0)LP-Greenwell (0-1)
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