Iowa Drops Rubber-Match Against Kansas State, 5-3

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April 14, 2013

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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa baseball team dropped the third and final game of its weekend series with Kansas State on Sunday at Duane Banks Field, falling 5-3.

Kansas State won the three-game series, taking the final two games. The Hawkeyes won the series opener, 6-1, on Friday.

“We were not very sharp defensively with some of our decision-making,” said UI head coach Jack Dahm. “That team is very good offensively with a good two-strike approach. We put a little pressure on them late, but had a baserunning blunder. We’ve got to play cleaner baseball and our baseball IQ has to go up.”

Kansas State’s bats continued where they left off on Saturday, pounding out six hits over the first two innings, but it translated into just two runs. The Wildcats plated their first run on a sacrifice fly by Blair DeBord in the first inning before Tanner Witt made the score 2-0 with an RBI triple in the second.

The Hawkeyes cut the lead in half in their third at-bat. Sophomore Ryan Rumpf got things started with a single to right field — Iowa’s first hit of the game — before classmate Eric Toole drove him in with a two-out, opposite field, RBI single.

The Wildcats got the run back in the top of the fourth and added two more in the fifth. Centerfielder Jared King provided the offense single-handedly in the fifth, connecting on a two-run shot over the left field fence that ended up on Hawkins Drive.

After tallying a pair of hits over the first six innings, Iowa matched that hit total in the seventh. Sophomore Taylor Kaufman led off the inning with an infield single before sophomore Jake Yacinich followed with a double into the left centerfield gap. Two runs then crossed the plate on RBI ground outs by senior Dan Sheppard and Rumpf, making the score 5-3.

The Hawkeyes had a chance in the ninth, as they brought the tying run tothe plate after Sheppard hammered a two out double down the left field line. Witt, who moved from left field to the mound, was able to avoid allowing any damage, collecting his fifth save.

Freshman righthander Blake McFadden was credited with the win after allowing three runs on four hits in six innings.

Sophomore Sasha Kuebel was the pitcher of record for the Hawkeyes, falling to 1-7 this season. Senior Ricky Sandquist threw four innings in relief of Kuebel, allowing zero runs and three hits. Sandquist, who owns a 1.50 ERA, has allowed zero runs in seven of his eight relief appearances this year.

“Ricky was outstanding,” Dahm said. “He picked up the spirits of everybody when he came in. When he got out there, energy came into our dugout.”

The Hawkeyes return to action Tuesday against Nebraska Omaha. The game will be played at Werner Park in Papillon, Neb., beginning at 2:00 p.m. (CT). Iowa and UNO have already met this season, playing a three-game series in Wichita, Kan., on March 16-18. The Mavericks won 2-of-3.