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PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. — The University of Iowa baseball team opened the Snowbird Classic with a 10-0 run-rule victory over Western Michigan on Friday afternoon. Redshirt sophomore Jack Dreyer (2-1) tallied the seven-inning shutout, allowing only three hits with seven strikeouts, and Iowa’s offense tallied 13 hits in the win.
The Hawkeyes have won four straight games and are 7-4 on the year.
“It’s a great way to start the trip and we played well today,” head coach Rick Heller said. “It was tough to hit. The wind was knocking everything down. In the fifth we broke it open with a five spot and five or six guys had two hits after that.”
Iowa’s offense was held without a baserunner in the first three innings despite multiple deep fly balls that got hung up in the wind.
Dreyer stifled the Western Michigan offense all day, allowing only two Broncos to reach scoring position. The Johnston, Iowa, native retired six straight batters after allowing a leadoff single in the first inning, including four straight swinging strikeouts.
Dreyer’s performance is Iowa’s first seven-inning complete game since Steve Turnbull in 2008 (against Minnesota). It is Iowa’s first complete game shutout since Tyler Peyton in 2016 against Penn State. (Peyton’s was a nine-inning shutout).
The Hawkeyes offense came alive in the fifth inning with three straight singles to load the bases.
Iowa plated two runs on RBI groundouts by sophomore Brendan Sher and senior Matthew Sosa to take a 2-0 lead. Following three two-out singles, Iowa scored three more runs, highlighted by a Peyton Williams two-RBI single to lead 5-0 after five innings.
In the top of the seventh, Western Michigan had runners on the corners with one out, but Dreyer induced a 6-4-3 double play to send the Hawkeyes to the bottom of the seventh where they would end the game. It was Iowa’s last of three double plays on the day.
The Broncos could only record two outs in the seventh, before the Hawkeyes scored five more runs to end the game via a run-rule.
Iowa used a span of five straight singles to score four runs, and Williams, who went 2-for-4 with three RBIs, scored the game-ending run on a wild pitch.
OF NOTE
- Five different Hawkeyes recorded multi-hit games.
- Iowa has scored 10+ runs in back-to-back games and has recorded three straight games with at least 10 hits.
- The Hawkeyes have not committed an error in four straight games.
- Dreyer’s seven innings pitched was a career high and he recorded his second quality start of the season.
- Dreyer picked off two baserunners in the fourth inning.
- Williams has recorded three straight multi-RBI games and leads the team with five total. Fullard upped his team-leading RBI total to 13 with two more today.
- Senior Ben Norman is the second Hawkeye with at least two three-hit games.
- Senior Matthew Sosa scored two runs out of the nine-hole.
Great start to the weekend!
🗣 Coach @rheller21 ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/NyDRpnmrGi
— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) March 6, 2020
UP NEXT
Iowa returns plays tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. (CT) against Georgetown at North Charlotte Regional Park #10.
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