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BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The University of Iowa baseball team had no answer for Indiana starting pitcher Tanner Gordon and dropped game two of the series, 13-1, at Bart Kaufman Field.
Gordon followed up yesterday’s pitching duel with a seven-inning, 12-strikeout performance that kept the Hawkeyes off balance all game. After Trenton Wallace’s single in the second, Iowa didn’t have a baserunner until junior Ben Norman hit a solo home run over the right field fence in the seventh inning.
Gordon retired 14 consecutive batters in that span and the Hawkeye offense was retired in order six times.
Starter Cam Baumann had a clean first inning but was bounced from the game after 2 1/3 innings. The sophomore left-hander allowed four runs on four hits and four walks.
Indiana finished with 13 hits and seven walks against five Hawkeye hurlers. Junior Adam Ketelsen, who entered in the seventh inning, was the bright spot for the Hawkeyes out of the bullpen. The Mount Vernon, Iowa, native gave up a double to the first batter he faced, but retired the next six batters, five of which went down on strikeouts.
The Iowa offense mustered five total hits. Sophomore Trenton Wallace had two of them, while two more came in the ninth inning off the bats of sophomore Brett McCleary and junior Luke Farley, who both entered as late-game substitutions.
QUOTING HEAD COACH RICK HELLER
“We didn’t have a good day on the mound. We didn’t have a good day offensively, which is a bad combination. The only positive was that I thought Adam Ketelsen looked good in his two innings of work at the end of the game.
“Indiana had a good day. (Tanner) Gordon did a nice job. He was able to keep us off the barrel early in the count and put us away. Once he got to two strikeouts, he punched out a lot of guys.
“I’d like to see us bounce back with a lot more energy and a lot more fight than we showed today. I feel good about having Grant Judkins on the mound. We’ll regroup. Days like this happen, unfortunately. We need to be a littler bit tougher than we were today, and I think we will be.”
OF NOTE…
- It is only the third time in Heller’s six years at the helm that Iowa has lost a game by 10 or more runs. Iowa’s last double-digit defeat came last season at the hands of No. 23 UNLV by a score of 13-3.
UP NEXT
The series finale is scheduled for tomorrow at 10:05 a.m. (CT). Junior Grant Judkins (2-1, 1.52 ERA) will start on the mound against Indiana’s Andrew Saalfrank (1-1, 2.93 ERA).
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