IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa baseball team dropped both halves of a doubleheader with Michigan on Saturday at Duane Banks Field. The Hawkeyes lost game one, 4-3, and game two, 10-6.
“It was a tough day for us,” said Rick Heller. “Game one was a tight one run loss. After we went to the bullpen, the guys did a good job. Jack Young and Anthony Watts and Ganon Archer pitched really well. They gave us a chance to win, and we had so many opportunities to score and just didn’t execute at all offensively. That was something that we hadn’t seen from our ball club all season long, and unfortunately, it bit us in that one. There were just tons of things that we didn’t do well. We didn’t execute to be able to get the runs in, and then we had some bad luck as well.”
Marcus Morgan started the first game for Iowa. He threw 2 2/3 innings allowing three runs on three hits and six walks while striking out five. Ganon Archer allowed one run in two innings of work and struck out five and Anthony Watts struck out six in three innings of work. Jack Young threw the final 1 1/3 innings of the game.
The Hawkeye pitchers combined for 17 strikeouts and 10 walks in game one.
Gable Mitchell was 3-for-3 with three extra base hits (two doubles and a triple) and Raider Tello was 2-for-3.
“Then in game two, we got a good start out of Brody Brecht,” said Heller. “But we couldn’t get off the field in the sixth. The guys fought back, and we take a one-run lead in the seventh. They take a one run lead and we’re going to get out of the inning in a one-run game when we lose a ball in the sky. After that we couldn’t stop it. They end up putting five up and go up four runs in the seventh or in the eighth. And we didn’t rally, Denner settled in, and did a good job to finish us off.”
Brody Brecht started game two and went 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs on six hits. He struck out 11 and walked one. Six other pitchers combined to close out the game in relief allowing five runs on seven hits.
Kyle Huckstorf was 3-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI and Blake Guerin had two RBIs.
“It was a disappointing day,” said Heller. “One of those days that you felt like if you’d have played better, you could have won a couple today, but we certainly didn’t.”
Michigan stranded 25 runners on the day to Iowa’s 15, and 11 of Michigan’s 12 RBIs on the day came with two outs.
Iowa returns to action on Wednesday hosting St. Thomas at 4:05 p.m. (CT).