May 15, 2008
IOWA CITY, IA – The Iowa Hawkeye baseball team won a thriller Thursday night, 4-3 in 10 innings, against Ohio State at Duane Banks Field. Tonight’s triumph is Head Coach Jack Dahm’s 123rd victory at Iowa, which ties Scott Broghamer (1998-03) for fourth in Iowa coaching victories.
In the bottom of the tenth, Iowa plated one run to win their first extra inning game of the season. Caleb Curry reached on a leadoff single, and advanced to third on a two-base throwing error by Ohio State pitcher Eric Best on a failed pickoff attempt. The Buckeyes attempted to load the bases on consecutive intentional walks to setup a double play, but Best threw a wild pitch during an intentional pass to Kurtis Muller to score Curry and send the Hawkeyes home a winner.
“You can tell their reliever was struggling with his control,” said Dahm. “I told Caleb (Curry) to be ready because I’ve won games like that before.”
The Hawkeye pitching staff held the Buckeyes scoreless in seven of the nine innings. Andrew Porter, in his first start this season and last outing as a Hawkeye, threw a solid six and one-third innings. Porter allowed three runs on four hits with five strike outs. He faced only 26 batters. Jason Belk pitched one and two-third innings of relief and only allowed one Buckeye hit. Brock Alberts came in the ninth and 10th innings and retired all six Ohio State batters to earn his team-best fifth win of the season.
“This was a good win for us,” said Dahm. “You could tell our guys wanted to win this game and they responded. Our pitching staff did a great job. Andrew (Porter) had an outstanding outing starting his first start of the season.”
Muller led the Black and Gold going 1-for-2 with a walk, sacrifice bunt and the game-tying RBI. Curry was 2-for-4 and scored the game winning tally. Five different Hawkeyes recorded hits and three collected RBI. Justin Toole registered a walk, but did not collect a hit tonight, which halts his 25-game hitting streak.
Trailing 1-0, Iowa scored two in the bottom of the second to grab an early 2-1 advantage. Kyle Riffel started things off with a one-out single to center. He advanced to second on a balk and to third on a ground out. With two outs Wes Freie delivered with a single to center, bringing Riffel home. Zach McCool wore a pitch to put Hawkeyes on first and second. Kevin Hoef continued the two-out rally with an RBI single.
After being silenced for three innings by Porter, Ohio State (28-24, 13-15) took back the lead in the sixth, 3-2. The inning featured a J.B. Shuck triple and aggressive base running.
Iowa (21-31, 9-20) tied it up in the bottom of the eighth, 3-3. Toole started Iowa off with his 19th walk of the season. Curry reached on a hit-by-pitch to put runners on first and second. One batter later, Muller came up big with an RBI single to center field. The RBI tied Muller with John Knapp as the Iowa true-freshman RBI leader with 43.
The Hawkeyes set a new team record; the Buckeyes notched two Hawkeyes in the game to increase its team total of hit-by-pitches to 84. The previous record of 83 was set last season.
The Hawkeyes will take on the Buckeyes in a doubleheader tomorrow at Duane Banks Field. Game one is set for 4 p.m.
GAME SUMMARY
Ohio State 010 002 000 0 -- 3 5 3
Iowa 020 000 010 1 -- 4 6 0
WP - Alberts (5-3)
LP - Best (4-2)