April 1, 2008
DES MOINES, IA – The Iowa baseball team stepped out of regular season play tonight playing a seven-inning exhibition against the I-Cubs, the AAA affiliate of the Chicago Cubs, at Principal Park. The Hawkeyes played the Cubs tough, but dropped the exhibition game 3-1. Tonight was the third time in six years the Hawkeyes played an exhibition game against the I-Cubs.
“It was an exhibition game and I wanted our players to have fun,” said Iowa Head Coach Jack Dahm. “We wanted to have a good defensive game, throw strikes and play well. I was very happy with our pitching performance tonight. The I-Cubs’ players treated our players well, it was a great atmosphere.”
Iowa recorded four hits in the exhibition. Junior Kevin Hoef recorded an infield single to leadoff the game and senior Caleb Curry singled to right to leadoff the second, both hits yielded no runs.
The Black and Gold scored its lone run in the top of the seventh on consecutive doubles. Junior Ryan Gryzwa lead off the inning with a two-bagger down the left field line and then scored on a freshman Kurtis Muller double down the right field line to score Gryzwa. Iowa nearly tied the game, but sophomore Justin Brauer lined into a double play to the first baseman with the hit-and-run on that would have scored two.
“It was a lot of fun tonight,” said Muller. “We did pretty well, it was a relaxed intensity and we just played the game.”
Hawkeye Lefthander Michael Jacobs started the game on the mound, throwing one inning. The sophomore allowed only one hit and did not yield a run. The Cubs’ Eric Patterson leadoff the contest with a single to right, but Jacobs picked off Patterson on a steal attempt.
Junior Righthander Steve Turnbull pitched two solid innings, not allowing a run and striking out the side in the bottom of the third. Senior lefthander George Raisarmos pitched a scoreless fourth inning.
The I-Cubs scored the game’s first run in the bottom of the fifth inning off Hawkeye senior righthander Jason Belk. Jake Fox leadoff with a double off the right field wall. Two batters later Casey McGhee plated Fox with a single up the middle. The Cubs added two insurance runs in the bottom of the sixth on two hits and a Hawkeye error.
Also pitching tonight for the Hawkeyes were senior Joe Singer, freshman Kevin Lee and redshirt freshman Patrick Schatz.
Iowa returns to non-conference action tomorrow when its faces Illinois State at 3:30 p.m. at Duane Banks Field. The game time was changed from 6 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. due to anticipation of cold weather in the Iowa City area tomorrow night.
GAME SUMMARYIowa 000 000 1 - 1 4 1Iowa Cubs 000 012 0 - 3 8 0
WP - BurnsSV -- CavazosLP - Belk