Hawkeyes Drop Regular Season Finale to No. 5 Ducks

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa baseball team was defeated in its regular season finale by No. 5 Oregon, 13-4, at Duane Banks Field on Saturday afternoon.

The Hawkeyes (32-20-1, 21-9) and Ducks (41-13, 22-8) entered the game tied for first in the Big Ten with Oregon securing at least a share of the Big Ten Championship with the win.

“Oregon is playing great baseball right now,” said head coach Rick Heller. “They are a very talented team, as you can see. We knew it was going to be that way because they had a shot still to win the championship, we were going to get their best effort. They were locked in and have been playing their best baseball of the year in the last 12 to 15 games. We knew the challenge and we knew how we had to attack it; we just gave them too much to have any chance of beating a team that good.”

Iowa hit .188 compared to Oregon’s .342 and both teams stranded nine runners.

Reece Beuter got the start for the Hawkeyes and went 2 2/3 innings in his return from injury. He allowed one run on one hit. Ben DeTaeye entered in relief and threw 1 1/3 innings allowing three runs while striking out two, he was tagged with the loss.

Four other pitchers for the Hawkeyes combined to throw the final five innings allowing nine runs while striking out five.

Six Hawkeyes tallied hits in the contest with Jaixen Frost going 2-for-4. Andy Nelson hit a home run and had two RBIs and Mitch Wood and Caleb Wulf added an RBI.

The Ducks scored 13 runs on 13 hits as they plated one in the third, two in the fourth, one in the fifth, four in the sixth, one in the eighth and four in the ninth. Oregon was 4-of-9 with runners in scoring position while the Hawkeyes hit just 1-for-10.

Iowa scored one in the first, one in the seventh and two in the eighth. The Hawkeyes loaded the bases and had the tying run on deck in the eighth inning but couldn’t mount a comeback.

“For this team, to be where they are at is pretty impressive,” said Heller. “It’s not the end, it feels like it now but it’s not the end of the season. That’s what we just talked about, we have a chance to regroup and find ourselves and get back to who we are and go down to Omaha and try to play good baseball again.”

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The Hawkeyes return to action at the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha, Nebraska.