Hawkeye Fan Shop — A Black & Gold Store | 24 Hawkeyes to Watch – 2017-18 | Fight For Iowa | Hawk Talk Monthly — February 2018 | Box Score (PDF) | Boxscore
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — Junior left-hander Nick Allgeyer allowed one run over 6 2/3 innings to send the University of Iowa baseball team to a 4-1 series-opening victory over UAB on Friday afternoon at Regions Field.
The win is Iowa’s third straight and it improves the Hawkeyes’ record to 7-1 this season.
Allgeyer (1-0) tallied his first victory and second quality start of the season. The St. Louis native scattered four hits, while allowing only a third-inning run. He struck out four, while issuing one walk. Allgeyer has 19 strikeouts in three starts.
Offensively, the Hawkeyes struck first, taking a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning. Sophomore Justin Jenkins singled and moved to second on a Blazer error. He scored on an RBI single by sophomore Kyle Crowl.
After UAB countered in the bottom half of the third inning, plating its lone run on a Price Visintainer RBI groundout, Iowa regained the lead in the fifth.
The Hawkeyes took the lead back with a two-out rally. Junior Mitchell Boe drew a two-out walk before scoring on an error by UAB left fielder Luke Eigsti on a ball hit down the left field line by Jenkins, who ended up at third base.
Crowl stretched Iowa’s lead with an RBI single to center field, pushing the advantage to 4-1. The Hawkeyes added an insurance run in the ninth when Ben Norman tripled, and scored off a wild pitch.
Sophomore Grant Leonard and junior Zach Daniels closed out the game for the Hawkeye. Leonard got two outs via strikeouts, while Daniels allowed one hit in 1 2/3 innings to tally his second save of the season.
QUOTING HEAD COACH RICK HELLER
“It was a well-pitched game by our guys. Nick Allgeyer gave us a quality start, but I felt like he labored a little bit in the beginning, but loosened up and really started hitting the zone. Grant Leonard came in a tough spot and got us out of it, and Zach Daniels was good again closing it out for us.
“We played well defensively with an errorless game. On offense, we had to scrap for runs, but we were able to take advantage of a miscue or two. Our guys battled and we were able to find a way to get the Friday night win.”
OF NOTE…
– Both teams finished with six hits with Crowl posting Iowa’s lone multi-hit game. He finished 2-for-4 with two RBIs.
– Iowa moves to 7-1 on the season — its best start since 2015 when the team won nine of its first 10 games.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes (7-1) return to action at Regions Field at 1 p.m. (CT) Saturday for the second game of the three game series against UAB.
FOLLOW THE HAWKEYES
Stay up-to-date on all the happenings with the Iowa baseball program on social media via Twitter (@UIBaseball), Instagram/UIBaseball, and Facebook/IowaBaseball.
