IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa baseball team scored five runs in the first two innings and the pitching staff allowed two hits and fanned 19 in an 8-0 shutout victory over Cornell College on Wednesday at Duane Banks Field.
Junior Duncan Davitt pitched three innings, fanning six, en route to his first victory of the season and five other Hawkeyes – Chas Wheatley, Benjamin DeTaeye, Brody Brecht and Keaton Anthony — took the mound. Every Iowa pitcher finished with at least two strikeouts.
“I was happy with the pitching staff today,” said head coach Rick Heller. “They all did well. They set the tone for the game and we came out and jumped on them early. That was great to see after yesterday, we didn’t let it linger. We got a lot of guys in the game, which is what we were hoping to do.
“We had great at-bats up and down the lineup and the pitching staff did a great job pounding the zone.”
Brecht’s first three “official” pitches at Banks reached 100 on the radar with two registering at 101. The Hawkeyes’ 19 strikeouts are the second-most in a game this season.
Iowa grabbed the 3-0 lead in the first inning on back-to-back RBI singles from Brendan Sher and Andy Nelson and an RBI ground out off a line drive off the bat of Brayden Frazier that caromed off pitcher Will Miller’s leg for the 1-5-3 putout.
The Hawkeyes pushed their lead to 5-0 in the second when freshman Ben Wilmes scored on a passed ball and Keaton Anthony’s RBI double.
Iowa added two more in the fifth on a bases loaded walks by Wilmes and Sam Petersen and the final run came off a towering solo home run to left field from Will Mulflur. It was his first career hit.
Nine different players had at least one hit in the game with Nelson tallying a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4 with a double.
OF NOTE…
– Iowa has had 10 or more strikeouts in all eight games this season. The team now has three games with 16 or more strikeouts.
– The Hawkeye pitching staff has two shutouts this season and three games allowing two hits or fewer.
– Mulflur and Wilmes both tallied their first career hits on Wednesday, while freshman Chas Wheatley made his collegiate debut on the mound.
– Iowa finished with 10 hits, its most since the second game of the season. It was the third time this year the team had 10 or more hits.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes return to action Friday, facing Wichita State in the opening game of the Frisco College Baseball Classic in Frisco, Texas. Game time is set for 1 p.m. (CT).
