April 28, 2009
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CEDER RAPIDS, IA – The Iowa baseball team was defeated, 9-3, Tuesday night by Northern Iowa in the final Corridor Classic at New Veterans Memorial Stadium in front of 1,953 fans. The Hawkeyes led twice in the contest, however, the Panthers took advantage of two costly Hawkeye errors in the eighth to plate six unearned runs.
With the game tied 3-3 heading to the bottom of the eighth, Northern Iowa rallied, hitting around, to break the game wide open. The Panthers posted six unearned runs on three walks, two Hawkeye errors and only two hits to claim a 9-3 victory.
“We’re disappointed we didn’t win tonight,” said Iowa Head Coach Jack Dahm. “We didn’t play well late and that’s frustrating. I felt like we put ourselves in an opportunity to win the game, but we didn’t make the plays. I thought our pitchers threw outstanding tonight.”
The Hawkeyes (14-26) took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first. Dallas Burke led off with a base hit through the left side. Both Kevin Hoef and Ryan Durant wore pitches to load the bases. Nick Brown was patient at the plate and drew a walk to pick up an RBI.
Northern Iowa (16-24) tied it up, 1-1, in the bottom of the second on a Gabe Schultz RBI single.
The Black and Gold took back the lead in the third, plating one for a 2-1 advantage. Burke started things off with a walk and was moved to second on a Hoef sacrifice fly. Burke moved over on a wild pitch and Durant drew a walk, also moving over on a wild pitch. Brown came up with a big RBI, his second of the game, single to put Iowa back on top.
Iowa added an insurance run in the seventh to stretch its lead to 3-1 on a huge two-out hit by Hoef. With one out, Kurtis Muller singled to the pitcher and later stole second. One out later, Hoef laced a timely single through the left side to pick up his 19th RBI of the year.
The Panthers played catch-up in the seventh and tied it up, 3-3. Northern Iowa took advantage of a Chad Arp pinch-hit sacrifice fly to score one and an Iowa error to tie it up.
Jarred Hippen got the start, going a scheduled three innings and allowed only one run on three hits with two strikeouts. The Hawkeye bullpen featured Patrick Schatz, Steve Turnbull, Mike Schurz and Jeff Pacha.
Iowa is set to host Creighton tomorrow at Duane Banks Field. First pitch will be at 6 p.m.
GAME SUMMARYNorthern Iowa 101 000 100 -- 3 5 3Iowa 010 000 26X -- 9 9 0
WP - Pinedo (2-6)LP - Turnbull (1-1)