April 23, 2008
WATERLOO, IA — The Iowa baseball team defeated in-state rival Northern Iowa (UNI) Wednesday night in front of 1,012 fans at Riverfront Stadium, 5-2. The win is Iowa Head Coach Jack Dahm’s 400th of his career and snapped a three-game losing streak for the Hawkeyes. The two runs Iowa allowed UNI tonight matched a season low for the Panthers.
“No. 400 just means I’ve been around a long time,” Dahm said. “I was proud of how our guys played tonight.”
In the win, five Hawkeyes recorded multi-hit games and four recorded an RBI. Kurtis Muller led the Hawkeyes going 2-for-5 and driving in two runs. Caleb Curry continued to swing the bat well going 2-for-4 with a double, run and RBI. Wes Freie went 2-for-4 with an RBI, double and a walk. Justin Toole was 2-for-5 with a run, while Justin Brauer went 2-for-4 with a run.
“Our guys played with a lot of energy tonight and the tone was set by Steve Turnbull,” Dahm said. “Steve was big tonight. This is one of the hottest offensive teams in the country. They’re veterans in their own ballpark and we came out with a win.”
Turnbull threw four solid innings, striking out three, allowing no earned runs and no walks in earning his second win of the year.
UNI (24-12) scored one in the bottom of the first to take an early 1-0 lead. The Panthers took advantage of two hits and a Hawkeye error to plate the lone run.
Iowa (15-22) broke through in the fifth with a four-run rally to take the lead, 4-1. The first six Hawkeyes reached base, and the Hawkeyes batted through the order. The no-out rally was started by a Brauer double to left field. Matt Mossey drew a walk to continue things and Toole loaded the bases with a single to right. With loaded bases, Curry received an RBI by reaching base on a hit-by-pitch to put Iowa on the board. Freie continued to swing the bat well with an RBI-single through the left side, to score Mossey. Muller took advantage of the loaded bases and with a bloop single down the right field line, he drove in two Hawkeyes.
The Hawkeyes added an insurance run in the seventh to make it 5-1. The Hawkeyes capitalized on a Panther error in the inning. Muller reached on a throwing error by the catcher, was moved over by a Kyle Riffel sacrifice bunt and scored on a Cataldo RBI-single through the left side.
The Black and Gold gave up one in the bottom of the eighth, to make it 5-2. However, with the bases loaded the Panthers hit into a 5-4-3 double play to get Iowa out of a jam.
Andrew Porter shut down the Panthers in the eighth and ninth innings. Porter retired UNI in order in the last frame, including recording two strikeouts to secure the in-state victory and record his fourth save of the season.
Iowa and UNI will meet again one week from tonight in Cedar Rapids in the fifth annual Corridor Classic at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids, IA.
“Tonight was a good effort by our ball club,” Dahm said. “We wanted to gain some confidence going into Michigan State, and this was it.”
Iowa will take on Michigan State at Oldsmobile Park in Lansing, MI, this weekend in a four-game series. Game one is set for Friday at 5 p.m. (CDT).
GAME SUMMARY Iowa 000 040 100 - 5 13 3UNI 100 000 010 - 2 5 1
WP – Turnbull (2-4)LP – O’Leary (2-3)SV – Porter (4)