April 9, 2008
IOWA CITY, IA — The Iowa baseball team took advantage of five Coe errors in a 7-2 victory over the Kohawks at Duane Banks Field Wednesday night. Only three of Iowa’s seven runs were earned. This was the first time the intrastate teams faced off in just over 20 years; the last time being in 1987 under former Head Coach Duane Banks. In the win, Iowa advances to 9-17 and Coe falls to 15-10.
“We had a solid effort by our guys tonight,” said Head Coach Jack Dahm. “The team had a good approach to the game. Our pitchers threw well, our defense was solid and we executed with runners in scoring position.”
In the win, the Hawkeyes scattered 11 hits and the pitching staff picked-up a season-high 13 strikeouts. The last time Iowa posted 10-or-more strikeouts was March 16th in a 16-14 win over Rutgers. Seven different Hawkeyes recorded a hit in the contest, including redshirt sophomore Nick Muhlenbruch who recorded a double with his first Hawkeye hit.
Zach McCool, Kyle Riffel, Caleb Curry and Wes Freie collected multiple hits tonight. Freie was 2-for-4 with a run scored, Curry was 2-for-3 with two runs and a pair of stolen bases, Riffel was 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored and McCool was 2-for-5 with an RBI and a stolen base.
Iowa starter, righthander Zach Kenyon, retired the first five Kohawks, but the Coe offensive went off with five straight singles in the top of the second. Coe took an early lead, pushing two across. The inning featured three Kenyon strikeouts and three Kohawks left on base.
The Hawkeyes took advantage of one Kohawk error and two hits in the bottom of the third. Riffel started Iowa off with a one-out single up the middle, followed by a Justin Toole walk. Curry continued things with a single down the right field line, and Kurtis Muller took advantage of the loaded bases and with a RBI sacrifice fly to center. Curry advanced on a pass ball, to put runners on third and second. T.J. Cataldo hit the ball in play and reached on an error by the first baseman, which scored Toole and Riffel to put Iowa ahead, 3-2.
Iowa added an insurance run in the fifth to make it 4-2. Toole took advantage of a Coe error to reach base at the start of the inning. He stole his ninth base of the season and advanced to third on a Curry single. Curry swiped second base to put runners on third and second. Muller picked up the RBI with a groundout to short stop to score Toole.
The Black and Gold continued to push runs across the plate in the sixth. Kody McManis reached on a single up the middle followed by a Freie two-bagger to put runners in scoring position. One batter later McCool picked up his first Hawkeye RBI on a groundout to third. With two-outs, Riffel came through with a single up the middle to score Freie to make it a 6-2 Iowa ballgame.
The Hawkeyes kept at it in the seventh scoring another run, making it 7-2. Curry reached in result of the seventh error of the game and advanced to second on his second stolen base of the game and team-leading 21st of the season. One batter later, Cataldo advanced Curry to third on a single to center. And a sacrifice fly off the bat of McManis scored Curry.
Reliever Andrew Porter struck out three batters in the top of the ninth to close out the game.
“Our guys have made offensive adjustments the past three games,” said Dahm. “They are doing what Coach Ryan Brownlee is telling them, and its showing.”
Iowa will travel to Sembrower Field in Bloomington, IN, to take on the Hoosiers in its third Big Ten series of the season. First pitch is set for 6 p.m. on Friday.
GAME SUMMARYCoe College 020 000 000 --- 2 6 5Iowa 003 012 10X --- 7 11 0
WP - Belk (1-0)
LP - Nicholson (4-3)