April 12, 2016
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By JAMES ALLAN
hawkeyesports.com
IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa baseball team spotted Air Force a 6-0 lead before rallying for a 9-7 victory Tuesday night at Duane Banks Field. It was the team’s eighth come-from-behind win this season.
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The victory moves the Hawkeyes to 15-15 overall; Iowa has a .500 record for the first time this season.
“I told the guys to keep swinging the bats and if you stick with it, don’t get down, and worry about the things you can control, the game will come back to you,” said UI head coach Rick Heller. “Sure enough it did.
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“We had a couple of balls that weren’t hit hard that fell in. It was a good win against a good team.”
After collecting just three hits and trailing 6-0 through the first 5 1/2 innings, Iowa’s offense came to life. The Hawkeyes erupted for five runs on three hits and took advantage of two Air Force errors in the sixth before taking the lead with a four-run seventh.
Sophomore Austin Guzzo scored the first run on a Falcon fielding error following a single from senior Tyler Peyton and junior Mason McCoy cut the lead to 6-2, scoring on a failed pickoff attempt.
The Hawkeyes followed with back-to-back extra base hits — a Robert Neustrom triple and a double from Eric Schenck-Joblinske — to make the score 6-4. Freshman Zach Daniels drove in the final run of the inning on an RBI groundout to second base.
Guzzo kept the rally going in the seventh with a leadoff single and McCoy doubled to put runners on second and third with nobody out. Peyton’s RBI groundout tied the game at six before Daniel Aaron Moriel‘s RBI base hit gave Iowa its first lead.
Senior Joel Booker provided some insurance with a two-out, two-run single to centerfield to stretch the Iowa advantage to 9-6.
The Falcons had a rally of their own in the ninth, using a walk and back-to-back one-out singles to trim the deficit to 9-7. With runners on the corners, junior Josh Martsching came in to close the door, getting a strikeout and groundout to record his second save of the season.
Freshman Shane Ritter (1-0) earned his first career victory, allowing four runs on six hits over four innings of relief. He had a career-high six strikeouts. Senior Calvin Mathews started and went four innings, allowing two runs on three hits. He fanned four.
Nine different Hawkeyes had at least one hit in the game and seven of the nine runs came from the bottom half of the lineup. Peyton finished 3-for-5 with an RBI and run scored, McCoy and Neustrom scored two runs apiece, and Booker had two RBIs.
Air Force jumped out to a 6-0 lead, scoring single runs in the third, fourth, and sixth innings and three in the fifth. Tyler Jones hit his 11th home run of the season in the fourth, the Falcons had three consecutive RBI singles in the sixth, and Tyler Zabojnik hit a solo home run in the sixth.
The Falcons used six pitchers in the game. Steven Plaskett (0-1) suffered the loss, allowing five runs on five hits in two innings of work. He had one strikeout and issued three walks.
The two teams close out the midweek series Wednesday at 6:05 p.m. (CT).
