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IOWA CITY, Iowa — The University of Iowa baseball team hit seven home runs and led 8-0 and 13-6 before seeing Missouri rally for a 17-16 extra-inning victory Tuesday night at Duane Banks Field.
The two teams combined for 33 runs, 40 hits, eight home runs, and 16 extra-base hits in a game were the wind was blowing out.
The Hawkeyes took an early 8-0 lead through three innings courtesy of a solo home run from Tyler Cropley, a two-run home run from Matt Hoeg, a sacrifice fly from Mitchell Boe, another two-run single from Cropley, and an RBI double from Robert Neustrom. Boe capped things off with a two-out RBI single to build the eight-run lead.
Mizzou closed the gap to 8-6 with a single run in the fourth, four runs in the fifth, and a single run in the sixth. The Hawkeyes answered with a five-run sixth when Neustrom hit a three-run home run to right center and sophomore Kyle Crowl hit a two-run shot, stretching Iowa’s lead to 13-6.
The Tigers exploded for seven runs in the eighth inning to tied the game with Zach Hanna’s pinch-hit, two-run homer tying the game at 13. Iowa regained the lead in the bottom half when Cropley connected on his second homer of the game, a solo shot off the Sharp Family Video Board in left field.
Missouri tied the game in the ninth on a Tony Ortiz sacrifice fly before Connor Brumfield’s RBI double gave the Tigers their first lead. Iowa forced extras in its final at bat when Boe hit an opposite field solo home run down the left field line — his first career blast — tying the game at 15.
The Tigers took the outright lead in the 11th on RBIs from Chris Cornelius and Hanna. Iowa closed the gap to 17-16 in the 11th when Chris Whelan hit a solo home run and Iowa had the winning run on base, but reliever Luke Anderson got Austin Guzzo to ground out to end the wild, crazy night in Iowa City.
Freshman Cam Baumann (1-1) suffered the loss, allowing two runs on six hits over 1 1/3 innings. Iowa used eight pitchers in the game. Freshman Trenton Wallace was strong in his start, scattering three hits over three innings before departing with arm tightness in the fourth.
QUOTING HEAD COACH RICK HELLER
“We had great at-bats up-and-down the lineup. It was nice to jump out to the lead like we did. Unfortunately, we didn’t pitch very well today, especially the guys in the middle innings. Once Missouri got hot, it was a lot of ground balls finding the holes. We weren’t able to stop it, but we didn’t quit. We had clutch at-bats and a lot of guys stepped up. I don’t fault our guys effort. We just have to put this behind us and get ready for tomorrow.”
OF NOTE…
- Iowa hit seven home runs, the second-most in a single game in school history. Cropley had a pair of blasts — his seventh and eighth of the season. He is 6-for-10 with three home runs, six RBIs, and five runs in his last two games.
- Six different Hawkeyes posted multi-hit games. Tyler Cropley (3-for-5, 2 HR 4 RBIs, 4 R) and Robert Neustrom (3-for-6, HR, 4 RBIs, 1 R) had three-hit games, while Chris Whelan (2-for-6, HR, 2 R, RBI), Austin Guzzo (2-for-5, 2 R), Kyle Crowl (2-for-4, HR, 3 R, 2 RBIs), and Mitchell Boe (2-for-5, HR, 3 RBIs, R) had two-hit games.
- Iowa’s 16 runs ties a season-high. The Hawkeyes scored 16 runs against Coe College on April 11.
- Missouri’s 17 runs are the most Iowa’s pitching staff has surrendered this season.
- The game was Iowa’s longest game of the season, going 11 innings. Iowa went 10 innings against Virginia Tech in the fourth game of the season.
- It was also Iowa’s longest game in total time, spanning four hours and 58 minutes.
- Iowa moves to 15-5 at home this season.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes (26-15) return to action Wednesday, hosting Western Illinois at 6:05 p.m. (CT)
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