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COLUMBUS, Ohio — The University of Iowa baseball team (26-16, 11-7) dropped the series finale, 5-1, to Ohio State (24-20, 7-8) on Sunday at Bill Davis Stadium.
The Hawkeyes couldn’t complete the series sweep, but picked up their fifth straight Big Ten series win and second series win on the road. At 11-7 in the Big Ten, Iowa is in sole possession of fourth place in the conference standings.
Iowa’s offense couldn’t get anything going offensively despite drawing seven walks.
Junior Grant Judkins (4-5) was issued the loss, but recorded his sixth quality start of the season, going six innings, allowing four runs (three earned) with four strikeouts. After striking out the side in the first inning, Judkins allowed a run in the second and third innings.
With the Buckeyes lead 2-0 going into the sixth inning, Ohio State added two runs via three two-out hits to take a 4-0 lead.
The Hawkeyes left 11 runners on base, including seven in the first six innings. Iowa’s offense showed life in the seventh inning, putting the first two batters on base on a Justin Jenkins bunt single and a Mathew Sosa walk. Jenkins came around to score on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Mitchell Boe.
Junior Austin Martin struck out with the bases loaded to end the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh, Iowa had a scary moment with Boe and Zeb Adreon colliding in short right field. A run scored on the collision and Boe was forced to leave the game.
Senior Luke Farley doubled with one out in the eighth, but he was left stranded. Iowa’s last comeback effort was quickly thwarted after Sosa was picked off by the catcher on a throw back after singling the pitch before.
Redshirt junior Grant Leonard pitched the final inning for Iowa, allowing no runs to extend his scoreless innings streak to 14 games.
QUOTING HEAD COACH RICK HELLER
“It is same story as last weekend. Today doesn’t ruin the fact we had a good weekend and took another series, but it’s disappointing how we played today. Offensively, we weren’t sharp. They gave us seven walks and we weren’t able to turn it in to any runs. It was a tough day to hit with the wind blowing in strong. We hit a couple balls early right at them that got caught. We didn’t really kick the ball around, but the free bases we had today, all of them led to runs. It’s a rough day for us. Things didn’t click.”
OF NOTE…
- Adreon’s pinch-hit double was his third of the series.
- Senior Chris Whelan’s 21-game on-base streak was snapped.
UP NEXT
Iowa resumes play with a midweek contest at Duane Banks Field against Western Illinois on Tuesday with a 6:05 p.m. (CT) first pitch. On Wednesday, the Hawkeyes will travel to Rosemont, Illinois, to play Northwestern in a nonconference matchup at Impact Field.
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.
