IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa’s baseball team lost to North Dakota State, 21-14, on Wednesday night at Duane Banks Field.
“The message is you can’t just walk out of the locker room and think that is okay,” said head coach Rick Heller. “It’s not okay, not at all. The pitching tonight was as bad as I have seen. When you combine 20 hits with the free bases, you don’t give yourself a chance to come back.”
The Bison got the game started with a first inning grand slam; they added two more runs in the top half of the first to extend their lead to six.
Iowa responded with a two-run home run from Reese Moore in the bottom half. His second home run in as many days. NDSU got the two runs back in the top of the third to make the game 8-2.
The Hawkeyes cut the Bison lead in half in the third with a two-RBI double down the right field line from Davis Cop. Iowa continued to chip away with back-to-back bases-loaded walks in the fourth.
NDSU would plate a pair of runs in the fifth to push the lead back to four, before Iowa got two back in the bottom half. A pair of home runs in the sixth for the Bison made it 14-8.
A five-run fifth and a two-run seventh once again broke it open for NDSU. An Andy Nelson grand slam in the seventh cut the deficit to four. The Bison would score four more runs in the eighth and the ninth with Iowa scoring once in the eighth.
“The difference tonight was that they did so much damage when they got runners on,” said Heller. “We had those opportunities and didn’t get the hit that would have kept us scoring with them.”
Four Hawkeyes had multi-RBI games: Nelson had four, Cop and Cade Moss each had three, and Moore had two.
Reese Bueter started on the mound for Iowa and threw 2/3 of an inning. He was tagged with the loss after allowing six runs on four hits. Nine other pitchers saw action for Iowa with the Hawkeye arms allowing 10 walks while only striking out four.
“Tip your hat to NDSU,” said Heller. “They pounded the ball, and they had a great night. The bottom part of their order torched us. Up-and-down the lineup they were on the barrel all night long.”
The Hawkeyes return to action on Friday at Duane Banks Field for the first game of a three-game series with Northwestern at 6:05 p.m. (CT).