By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The Iowa baseball team hosted No. 25 Illinois in its Big Ten home opener at Banks Field on Friday, and there already was a sense of urgency.

Iowa entered the game 0-3 in conference play after having been swept and outscored 23-4 in a three-game series at Indiana last weekend.

The Hawkeyes also trailed 4-3 after six innings on Friday, but then scored one run in the bottom of the seventh inning and four in the eighth to earn a much-needed 8-4 victory

“Last weekend was a shot in the mouth to us and all we had to do was come out and get back to playing the game the right way and get back to doing what we do best, and that’s have fun on the baseball field,” said senior second baseman Mitchell Boe, who had three of Iowa’s 13 hits on Friday and also scored three runs. “The bats came alive up and down the lineup, good at bats were going and it was really fun to be a part of.”

Iowa also needed a strong performance on the mound from Friday starter Cole McDonald, and the senior delivered for the most part.

McDonald didn’t allow a run in the first four innings and made it through six innings before given way to reliever Trace Hoffman.

McDonald ran into trouble in the sixth inning when Illinois scored three runs to take a 4-3 lead.

Hoffman was among three relief pitchers who combined to hold Illinois scoreless over the final three innings.

Drew Irvine recorded two outs in the eighth inning and then Grant Leonard recorded the final out in the eighth before retiring the side in the ninth.

“I thought (Cole) gave us a really good start,” said Iowa coach Rick Heller. “He wasn’t as sharp with his command as he was last week, but he battled for us.

“They’re a good hitting team. They’re tough to pitch to. A lot of guys in that lineup that don’t have too many holes, and if you make mistake up especially, you’re going to get hurt, and Cole missed with some pitches and paid for it. But he gave us a deep start, a quality start.”

Iowa was trailing 4-3 in the seventh inning when pinch hitter Trenton Wallace bounced a single up the middle that scored Chris Whelan with the tying run.

Whelan then walked with the bases loaded in the eighth inning to give Iowa a 5-4 lead.

Pinch hitter Grant Judkins then provided a little cushion by smacking a two-run single, making the score 7-4.

Iowa scored its fourth run in the inning on a bases loaded walk by Justin Jenkins.

Whelan’s bases-loaded walk seemed to lift some of the pressure from the Iowa players.

“Agreed, because when things are going bad as you guys know, everything goes wrong,” Heller said. “The ball’s outside, but they still call it a strike. And everything kind of goes against you. It was really good to see him get that walk, and it did alleviate a lot of pressure.”

Iowa catcher Austin Martin was 3-for-3 at the plate, scored two runs and drove in two runs.

“We’ve had a couple games where it’s been hard to get a couple across the plate for sure,” said Martin, who transferred to Iowa after playing for Southeastern Community College. “But we just keep sticking with the process. We’re not getting caught up in the results.”

Iowa struggled to score runs in Tuesday’s game against Bradley, but still rallied in the late innngs for a 4-2 victory at Banks Field.

Heller credits that win for creating some positive momentum and for relieving some of the pressure.

“That was really the emphasis after we found a way to win that Bradly game,” Heller said. “And to have a game go like that, sometimes, takes a little pressure off. And I thought that was important. But I just really felt like as ground they kind of re-committed to just focusing on the process and not on getting caught up.

“You could see with at bats. They weren’t going well. Guys were showing bad body language. Things we generally don’t do. But today was much, much better. They just went out and played, was aggressive and had a good time and played the game the right way.”

Boe smacked a single up the middle on a 3-2 count to lead off the top of the third for Iowa. He then scored the game’s first run on a double by Martin, whose hit carried all the way to the left field warning track.

Connor McCaffery then singled to put runners on first and third with two outs.

Iowa took a 2-0 lead on Ben Norman’s run-scoring single, and that led to a visit to the mound by Illinois.

The inning ended when Iowa third baseman Lorenzo Elion grounded out to third base.

Illinois finally had its first runner in scoring position when shortstop Ben Trioke doubled just inside the right field foul line to lead off the fourth.

McDonald squashed any potential rally, though, by getting Illinois to hit into its third double play of the game.

Martin struck again in the fourth inning by driving in Boe with a single, making the score 3-0. It was Martin’s third hit in the game in three plate appearances.

Boe had reached base by beating out an infield single with two outs.

McCaffery then drew a walk to load the bases for Norman, who flew out to center to end the fourth.

Illinois scored its first run of the game in the fifth on back-to-back doubles.

But then McDonald worked out of the jam by recording his fourth strikeout of the game and by getting a long fly-ball out that Norman caught on the warning track in left field.

McDonald wasn’t as fortunate in the sixth inning, however, as Illinois scored three runs to take a 4-3 lead.

Iowa had two runners on base in the bottom of the sixth, but couldn’t score as McCaffey grounded out to first to end the inning.

Heller then went to his bullpen in the top of the seven as Hoffman replaced McDonald.

Illinois wouldn’t score again, while Iowa scored five consecutive runs to pick up its first victory in conference play.

“It was good to see,” Heller said. “We needed a game where some guys came through offensively. And that happened today.”

The starting time for Friday's game was moved up to 2 p.m. in order to beat the rain that was in the forecast for later in the day. That proved to be a wise decision because it had started to sprinkle in the later innings.  

The teams will play the second of their three-game series on Saturday with first pitch scheduled for 2:05 p.m. at Banks Field.

Illinois 000 013 000 – 4 11 0

Iowa 002 100 14x – 8 13 1