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Evanston, Ill. – The University of Iowa baseball team dropped a 7-5 decision to Northwestern on Saturday afternoon at Rocky Miller Park. The loss snaps the Hawkeyes’ eight-game winning streak.
“It was a tough game today,” said UI head coach Rick Heller. “We had a couple of bad innings, giving up five runs in the second inning and two in the sixth. We had two innings where we just didn’t play well.”
Iowa cut into a 5-2 deficit in the fourth when Mitchell Boe had an RBI single down the left field line to cut the deficit to 5-3. The Hawkeyes tied the game in the fifth.
After senior Mason McCoy singled to center field, junior Jake Adams blasted his Big Ten-leading 12th home run of the year to left center field, tying the contest at five.
“Jake’s two-run home run was big,” Heller said. “At that point, things were looking good, but because of the miscues and free bases, it wasn’t enough.”
Northwestern regained the lead in the sixth against sophomore reliever Zach Daniels. The right-hander hit two Wildcat batters before Leo Kaplan delivered an RBI single to left to give Northwestern a 6-5 lead. Ben Dickey followed with an RBI single to left field, pushing the Northwestern lead to 7-5.
Junior Tyler Cropley put the Hawkeyes on the board first when in the second inning when he connected on his third home run of the year — a two-run shot. Iowa scored a single run in the fourth inning on a Boe RBI single down the left field line.
“Tyler was seeing the ball well today,” Heller said. “You could feel that he was seeing it well and was going to get some good swings off.”
Daniels (6-2) suffered the loss, giving up two runs on four hits and hitting two batters. Freshman Kyle Shimp pitched the final 2 1/3 innings, allowing zero runs on one hit and striking out three.
Northwestern’s Sam Lawrence picked up the win after entering the game in the fifth inning. The freshman gave up no runs on two hits in five innings of work.
“I was impressed with him,” Heller said. “He came in and was pretty filthy on the mound.”
Three Hawkeyes had multi-hit games in Chris Whelan (2-for-5), Adams (2-for-4), and Cropley (2-for-4.) Adams and Cropley each added two RBIs.
Sunday’s rubber match between is slated for a 1 p.m. (CT) first pitch.
