By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – Gable Mitchell has reached the point as an Iowa baseball player where winning a Big Ten series just isn’t good enough anymore.

Even if it’s a sixth-straight Big Ten series win.

The Big Ten-leading Iowa baseball team won its sixth straight series over the weekend, but fell short of sweeping Nebraska, losing 6-4 on Sunday at Duane Banks Field.

Iowa also had a chance to sweep the three-game series at Northwestern last weekend, but fell 5-4 in the third game last Sunday.

“The biggest lesson is we feel like we’re a team that’s going to make a run in the Big Ten Tournament and the championship game is on Sunday, and if you’re not ready to play on Sunday, you’re going to get your butt beat,” Mitchell said. “So, we’ve got to be able to show up every day. Even if things have been going well, we can’t let that actually affect us too much.

“We’ve done a lot of really good things up until now. But it just shows that you’re vulnerable at any time if you’re not all in.”

Iowa fell behind 3-1 in Sunday’s game as Nebraska smacked three solo home runs with the wind blowing out to left field.

The Hawkeyes then scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth and one in the seventh to take a 4-3 lead.

But then two costly throwing errors by Iowa in the eighth inning helped shift the momentum and the lead back to Nebraska, which scored two runs in the eighth to take a 5-4 lead.

The Cornhuskers added an insurance run in the ninth to avoid being swept.

Iowa fell to 14-4 in the Big Ten and 23-11 overall, while Nebraska improved to 5-10 and 16-20.

Iowa head coach Rick Heller was frustrated after Sunday’s loss with his batters for not being more patient at the plate against Nebraska pitchers Jackson Brockett and Tucker Timmerman, both of whom consistently worked the the bottom part of the strike zone hoping to get the Iowa hitters to chase.

“We wouldn’t take the strike and that’s the thing you have to do when you’re trying to get the guy to come up,” Heller said. “You have to be brave enough to take the one that you’re going to get called on you every once in a while to try to get one elevated that you can do some damage.

“But unfortunately all the ground balls were hit right at them and we hit a bunch of them.”

But even with the problems at the plate and with the two errors in the eighth, Iowa still didn’t go down easy as pinch hitter Mitch Wood just missed hitting a two-run home run to right center field that would have tied the score at 6.

Nebraska center fielder Riley Silva made a leaping catch up against the fence in right center to secure the win.

“I thought it had a chance, but the wind had died down quite a bit and you’ve got to hit it pretty good if the wind’s died down in that part of  field,” Heller said. “And he did.

“But it just wasn’t quite enough. But a really good effort by Mitch.”

Nebraska committed four errors, but Iowa failed to capitalize on them, leaving 13 runners on base.

“We’ve had some days where it didn’t go quite so well, but then eventually someone came through with the clutch hit to break it open and we ended up scoring three to five runs or more,” Heller said. “And today, it just didn’t happen.”

Heller has been pleased with his team’s consistency and focus throughout Big Ten play.

He also likes the veteran leadership on this team, how they aren’t afraid to call players out, and also with how they lead by example.

Iowa has shown a knack for overcoming adversity, but the inability to be patient with pitches thrown near the bottom of the strike zone proved costly in Sunday’s loss.

“The bigger point I was making with the team was how we started to press once it didn’t go well in the third and fourth innings,” Heller said. “Normally, the way this team handles themselves, there’s just no worry. You can just feel it in the dugout. Even yesterday when we were down, it was like no big deal. We’re going to score a bunch of runs. We’re fine.

“But for whatever reason, today, after about the fourth inning we just kept hitting fungos to their infielders and they seemed to press a little bit. And that was my message; you just have to stay who you are and stay true to yourself.”

Given Iowa’s success this season, Heller was surprised to see his players struggle at the plate on Sunday.

Nobody outside of maybe the Iowa players and coaches gave the Hawkeyes much chance of winning the Big Ten title this season.

“I mean why are we pressing?” Heller said. “We’re so far ahead of where anybody ever thought we were going to be. Just go freaking play. We’ve got an opportunity to make a big statement today and we laid an egg.

“And that’s a lesson. You’ve got to show up every day.”