March 7, 2010
LAWRENCE, KS – The Iowa baseball team dropped Sunday’s series finale at 25th-ranked Kansas, 15-7. The game was played at Hoglund Ballpark.
Junior Kurtis Muller paced the Hawkeyes, with two hits and two runs. Muller doubled to lead-off the game to extend his hitting streak to 20 games, dating back to last season. Muller later scored on a Ryan Durant groundout to give Iowa an early 1-0 lead.
Kansas (7-3) answered with three runs on three hits in the bottom of the first off Hawkeye starter Matt Dermody. The Jayhawks chased Dermody in the second inning, plating five more runs on three hits, two walks and a hit-by-pitch to make the score 8-1.
Iowa (4-5) scored two in the top of the third frame on no hits. Redshirt sophomore Phil Keppler recorded a bases loaded walk, while freshman Dan Sheppard followed with a hit-by-pitch with the bases loaded to cut the deficit to 8-3.
Kansas added another run in the third, two in the fifth and four more in the seventh inning off Hawkeye relievers Patrick Schatz, Jeff Pacha, Ricky Sandquist, Michael Jacobs and Kevin Gates.
Junior Zach McCool homered to left field in the sixth inning, scoring Sheppard, who was hit-by-pitch for the second time in the game, to give Iowa its fourth and fifth runs. The homer was the third of McCool’s career. In the eighth, Dallas Burke roped an RBI double and later scored on a pass ball to give the Hawkeyes their sixth and seventh runs of the contest.
The Hawkeyes return to action next weekend when they travel to Austin, RX, to face another Big 12 opponent and nationally-ranked Texas in a four-game series, beginning Friday at 6 p.m.