IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa baseball team (20-13) picked up its 20th win of the season in a 4-2 victory over Penn State (12-19) on Friday afternoon at Duane Banks Field.
Iowa scored all four of its runs in the first two innings and three Hawkeye pitchers – redshirt junior Trenton Wallace, redshirt senior Trace Hoffman, and redshirt junior Dylan Nedved – combined to strike out a season-high 15 Penn State hitters.
Wallace (5-1), Iowa’s starting pitcher, earned his team-leading fifth win and punched out 10 batters – six looking – to tie a career high. Over five innings of work, Wallace allowed seven hits – none for extra bases – and issued only two walks.
“The main goal after the first inning was to stay in the zone,” Wallace said. “The walk came back to hurt me. From then on, it was they had to hit their way on. That’s how you have to approach a team like this. They’re a quality hitting team, but you can’t give up the freebies.
After Penn State capitalized on leadoff walk in the top of the first to score the game’s first run, redshirt junior Izaya Fullard and redshirt senior delivered back-to-back home runs in the bottom half of the inning to give Iowa a 2-1 lead.
Both blasts were sent over the right field wall and were Fullard and Adreon’s fourth of the season.
Back-to-back jacks!@IzayaFullard23 and @ZebAdreon each deposit their fourth home runs of the season over the right field wall.#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/0hQjGojTvt
— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) May 7, 2021
In the bottom of the second, redshirt senior Ben Norman drove in redshirt freshman Brayden Frazier and redshirt sophomore Brendan Sher on a single through the left side. Norman’s Big Ten leading 43rd and 44th RBIs lifted Iowa’s lead to 4-1 through two.
Hoffman relieved Wallace in the sixth with two runners on, allowing one inherited runner to score on one of only two hits allowed by Hoffman in three innings of relief.
Hoffman punched out three Nittany Lions before handing the ball over to Nedved, who started the game at second base.
Nedved locked down his team-leading eighth save with a strikeout of pinch hitter Curtis Robison.
QUOTING HEAD COACH RICK HELLER
“Trenton (Wallace) settled in and gave us a quality start. There was not a lot of hard contact. The bullpen was outstanding and that’s the story. Trace (Hoffman) did a nice job and Dylan (Nedved) was sharp in the ninth. We didn’t walk a lot of guys, threw a lot of strikes and had a lot of strikeouts. The offense did enough early with the two home runs. We had things set up a couple of times, but didn’t get the two-out hit.”
🤧🤧🤧
Straight filth from @Twalley10 today.#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/ZlCAByf5tB
— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) May 7, 2021
OF NOTE
- Iowa has won six straight series openers.
- Norman (2-for-4, two RBIs), Fullard (2-for-4, one run, one RBI), and Adreon (2-for-3, one run, one RBI) all registered multi-hit games. Adreon leads all Hawkeyes with 13 multi-hit games, followed by Fullard’s 12 and Norman’s 10.
- Norman extended his on-base streak to 21 games. Fullard’s sits at 16 and Adreon’s on-base streak is up to 10 games.
- Wallace moved into ninth place on Iowa’s single season strikeouts list with 80 strikeouts in 10 starts.
- Redshirt freshman Peyton Williams started at DH after missing the Indiana series due to an injury. He was 0-for-3 with a walk.
UP NEXT
The remaining two games of the series are set to be played tomorrow in a doubleheader beginning at 11:05 a.m. (CT). First pitch is subject to change pending weather.
