May 27, 2010
Updated Tournament Bracket in PDF Format
COLUMBUS, OH — The Iowa baseball team fell in the second round at the Big Ten Tournament Thursday afternoon, 18-4, to second-seeded Michigan at Bill Davis Stadium. The loss snapped Iowa’s five-game win streak and was only the Hawkeyes’ second defeat in 11 games. Michigan scored at least one run in five of its eight at-bats.
“Hats off to Michigan,” Head Coach Jack Dahm said. “They did an outstanding job today at keeping us out of the game. This season there have been a lot of crazy baseball games in the conference and they did a good job keeping our offense out of the ballgame. We had a bad day and they had a good day, it’s as simple as that. But we will bounce back tomorrow, it only takes one win and then who knows what will happen.”
With the loss, Iowa will face either top-seeded Minnesota, fourth-seeded Purdue or six-seeded Indiana tomorrow in an elimination game. The Hawkeyes’ opponent will be decided tomorrow after game six of the tournament. Tomorrow’s Iowa contest will start at 2:35 p.m. (CDT).
Kurtis Muller led Iowa’s offense going 3-for-4 with three runs scored and a stolen base. Zach McCool and Mike Corbeil each had two hits today. McCool’s single in the fifth inning extended his hit streak to 13 games.
“They came after us in the first inning and took the momentum,” Muller said. “We have a big game tomorrow and we can’t worry today’s game tomorrow. We just need to go out there and focus on the things we can do, go pitch by pitch.”
Iowa (28-27) scored one in the first frame without a base hit to lead 1-0 — it was the Hawkeyes’ only lead of the game. Muller wore one to reach first, advanced to second on a wild pitch and moved to third on a fly out. McQuillan picked up an RBI with a groundout.
Michigan (31-21) knotted it, 1-1, in the bottom of the first. The inning featured a Patrick Biondi walk and run scored. The Wolverines took the lead in the fifth, scoring six on five hits to make it a 7-1 ballgame. Michigan put the game away with five runs in the fourth, one in the fourth, four in the fifth and two in seventh. The Wolverines pounded out 21 hits en route to victory, with five players collecting at least three hits.
The Hawkeyes added one in the fifth for a 12-2 score. With one out, Muller singled to right, followed by a McCool single and McQuillan walk. Ryan Durant drove in Muller with a single through the left side. However, with the bases loaded, a line drive to the pitcher resulted in a double play ball and to thwart the Hawkeye threat.
Starter Nick Brown pitched one inning and got the loss. He allowed seven runs, six earned, on five hits with two walks and two strikeouts. Iowa’s bullpen featured Zach Kenyon, Ricky Sandquist and Michael Jacobs.
Defensively, Hawkeye left fielder Trevor Willis collected his conference-leading seventh assist of the season after throwing out Mike Dufek at the plate in a bang-bang play to end the third.
The Iowa-Michigan contest was the sixth time the two teams faced off in Big Ten Tournament play. With the loss, Iowa is 1-5 against the Wolverines, the last time the two teams faced was 2005.
Hawkeye fans can watch tomorrow’s game on Big Ten Network (HD). Fans can listen to the game in its entirety on Hawkeye All-Access on hawkeyesports.com or hear the game joined in progress following the Cubs-Cardinals game on KXIC AM-800.