March 29, 2008
Ann Arbor, MI–The Iowa baseball team fell to No. 25 Michigan in their Big Ten season opener in extra innings, 4-3. In the loss, Iowa capitalized on three Wolverine errors in the seventh and manufactured runs against the dominant Zach Putman. In the loss Iowa falls to 7-10 overall and 0-1 in the Big Ten. While Michigan advances to 11-6 and 1-0 in the Big Ten.
In the Hawkeye loss, the Iowa pitching staff threw consistently and battled the dangerous Michigan offense throughout the ten innings. Michael Jacobs had his third quality start of the season, going seven and one-third innings allowing two earned runs on seven hits and walking no one. The Black and Gold bullpen included Andrew Porter, in his eleventh appearance of the season. Porter got the loss, dropping his record to 1-1.
To lead the Hawkeye offense was Justin Toole, T.J. Cataldo and Kurtis Muller. They were all 1-for-4 in the game. Between the three of them, they scored two of Iowa’s runs and drove in one.
Putnam threw eight solid innings, allowing no earned runs on three Hawkeye hits and striking out 12. Putnam also helped his cause going 3-for-5 scoring two runs and hitting in two.
The Wolverines got on the board in the bottom of the second, jumping to a 1-0 lead. The inning featured an RBI-single to center by Chris Berset.
Michigan continued to chip away at Jacobs in the bottom of the third. A Nate Recknagel sacrifice fly scored Kevin Cislo, to make it 2-0.
In the sixth the Wolverines scored another run, making it 3-0. The inning featured a Putnam home run to left center.
The Hawkeyes put some runs on the board in the seventh, taking advantage of three Michigan errors and hitting their first two hits against Putnam.
T.J. Cataldo started the inning off reaching on a one-out error by the shortstop. Justin Toole continued things for Iowa with the first Hawkeye single of the afternoon, advancing Cataldo to second. Caleb Curry hit the ball in play and reached on an error by the first basemen to load the bases. Freshman Kurtis Muller took advantage of the situation and singled to center to score Iowa’s first run of the game. Kyle Riffel reached on the third Wolverine error of the inning, scoring Toole and Curry to tie it up 3-3.
The Wolverines tried to end the game in the bottom of the ninth, but they left the bases loaded to go into Iowa’s second extra inning game of the year. However, Michigan ended the game in the bottom of the tenth. The inning featured a Putnam RBI-double, to make it 4-3.
Iowa will take on Michigan in Ann Arbor in a second game later this afternoon. First pitch will be around 3:30 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY
Iowa 000 000 300 0 - 3 3 2
Michigan 011 001 000 1 - 4 9 3
WP- Burgoon (1-0)LP - Porter (1-1)