Hawkeyes Down Duhawks in Home Opener

IOWA CITY, Iowa -- The University of Iowa baseball team defeated Loras, 11-3, in its home opener on Monday afternoon at Duane Banks Field. 

The Hawkeyes notched 15 hits and limited the Duhawks to four. Iowa hit .600 with runners on base, .533 with runners in scoring position and .395 overall. Each team committed zero errors.

"I'm thankful to Loras and Coach Tebon for pulling it out and finding a way to play us," said head coach Rick Heller.

It was a group effort on the mound for Iowa, who used nine different pitchers in a scheduled bullpen game. Freshman Jaron Bleeker made his first collegiate start for the Hawkeyes. The right-hander threw one inning, gave up one hit and struck out two batters. The Hawkeye pitching staff fanned 14 Duhawks and walked one. Senior Chas Wheatley led the team with three strikeouts. 

"It was great to see, escpecially after the guys had a rough first outing last Thursday when we were playing Washington State," said Heller. "The reason we wanted to play this game tonight so bad was to get them back out there with conference starting in week four now. I just didn't want them to have that bad taste in their mouth going into leauge play this weekend."

Iowa scored four runs in the first frame after Caleb Wulf, Jackson Beaman, Daniel Rogers and Andy Nelson each hit RBI singles.

The Hawkeyes were quiet at the plate until the sixth inning when Blake Guerin fouled off seven straight pitches and then hit a 426-foot bomb to centerfield to put Iowa up, 7-1.

The Duhawks responded with two runs in the top of the seventh, but the Hawkeyes answered right back and added four runs in the bottom of the frame, highlighted by a two RBI triple from designated hitter Reese Moore. The redshirt sophomore went 4-for-4 with a double, a triple, a walk and two runs scored. 

Junior Gable Mitchell was the lone other Hawkeye to record a multi-hit game, going 2-for-2 with two walks and two runs scored. 

UP NEXT

The Hawkeyes will open Big Ten play with a three-game series at Rutgers March 7-9 in New Brunswick, N.J. The series will be streamed on B1G+ (subscription) and broadcast on Hawkeye Radio Network.