Hawkeyes fall to Indiana State in regional final
The Hawkeyes knew it was going to be an uphill climb going into their contest with Indiana State. They had advanced to the regional final, but needed a win tonight and a win tomorrow to advance. Iowa had already used their three starting arms and all of their top bullpen arms had already thrown once, with some having thrown twice. On a night where the Hawkeyes were going to need a special performance from several young pitchers, they did not get one.
“We knew we were short handed with the pitching. Obviously had a hope that we would limit free bases better than we did,” said head coach Rick Heller. “We couldn’t get out of our own way on the mound and couldn’t find anybody to stablize things to give us a chance.”
Coach Rick Heller went with Zach Voelker on the mound to start and he got through 3.1 innings, but a walk and three hit by pitches made things hard for the sophomore. Voelker worked around a pair of baserunners to put up a zero in the first inning, but the Sycamores got on the board in the second. ISU loaded the bases with nobody out, but a sacrifice fly from Seth Gergely was all they could manage. In the third, ISU managed to make Voelker pay for free bases with a two run single off the bat of Miguel Rivera. An RBI single in the fourth inning from Grant Magill ended the day for Voelker after 18 hitters in 3.1 innings.
“I didn’t go into it expecting an uphill battle. Things didn’t go the way we wanted early, but I just kept going with the next pitch and focusing on that and controlling what I could control, which was putting the ball in the zone,” said Voelker.
The offense came to play and kept the Hawkeyes in it for as long as they could. An RBI single from Raider Tello got the Iowa on the board in the first inning, while Brennen Dorighi’s two-run home run in the third tied the game at 3. He was playing the final games of his college career and racked up six hits, as well as two home runs on the day.
“We talked (before the game) about getting everybody’s mind right. We needed to come into this knowing that we had to score some runs and hopefully outscore them,” said Heller. “The guys did a great job of bouncing back (from game one) and came out, gave a great effort, fought hard, but came up short.”
For a moment in the fourth inning, it appeared the Hawkeyes may have it in them to force a Monday winner takes all game. After leadoff walk drawn by Sam Hojnar, Blake Guerin made the most of his start at DH, with a two-run home run to put Iowa in front 5-4. Back-to-back two base errors by the Sycamores after the long ball gave the Hawkeyes another run and a 6-4 lead.
Unfortunately, Iowa was digging deeper into the bullpen and calling on young arms that had not yet pitched in a moment quite like an NCAA regional. That showed.
Cade Obermueller came in to face bases loaded with two outs in the fourth inning and got a huge strikeout, but when Iowa needed a clean inning to preserve the lead in the fifth, the free base bug struck. A walk and three hit by pitches allowed the Sycamores to plate two runs on zero hits. The true freshman Iowa City native started to find the zone in his second inning of work, but that was when Indiana State started winning at-bats.
Back-to-back singles and a 13-pitch walk loaded the bases with nobody out. However, two batters later, Cade appeared to have gotten out of the jam as a one out ground ball bounced its way to Michael Seegers at shortstop. However, his flip to second base for the start of a 6-4-3 double play was dropped by Sam Hojnar and everyone was safe. A bases loaded walk later in the inning made it 8-6 Sycamores.
Credit to the Iowa offense, they kept fighting. Four straight hits in the bottom of the sixth cut the lead to 8-7, but Michael Seegers was thrown out at the plate trying to tie the game and the rally was cut short. Brayden Frazier added a solo home run in the seventh inning, but the Indiana State bullpen stepped up late, while the ISU offense got the kill shot.
With two on in the top of the seventh and Aaron Savary on the mound, Keegan Watson fired a three run shot into the left field trees. That was the moment that the game slipped away from the Hawkeyes and although Savary was able to retire five of the last seven batters he faced, the game was all but finished.
Indiana State reliever Simon Gregersen retired eight of the ten batters he faced over the last 3.1 innings, including six strikeouts. His final strikeout of Sam Hojnar was followed by the Sycamores dugout spilling onto the field to celebrate a super regional berth.
“I came here because of them (the coaching staff) and because we wanted to play in a regional and that happened,” said Voelker. “We came up short, but so much preperation and so much hard work to get here. Couldn’t have done it with a better group of guys.”
“I’m sad it’s over because I feel like a break here or there, if we would have made pitches when we needed to, we would have been in a different situation,” said Heller. “We didn’t, so we tip our hat to Indiana State because they did and they got it done.”
The final stat line was just as messy as it sounded. The Sycamores racked up ten hits, but it was the six walks and an NCAA record tying ten hit by pitches gave ISU more traffic than a Chicago freeway. The staff as a whole threw just 107 of their 193 (55.4%) pitches for strikes. On the other side, Indiana State pitchers struck out nine and walked just two, while 116 of their 169 (68.6%) pitches went for strikes.
“I was telling all of the guys who are coming back to watch what’s goin on (the celebration) and that’s us next year,” said Heller. “That should motivate you to do the work and put in the time and do the things it takes to win a regional.”
The Iowa Baseball team closes the season with a 44-16 record, while 44 wins ties the 1981 team for most wins in a season in program history. They finished in third in the Big Ten regular season standings, advanced to the Big Ten Tournament championship and made it to the Terre Haute Regional Final.
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