By Hawkeyesportds.com

IOWA CITY, Iowa – The University of Iowa baseball team fell to Western Illinois, 7-3, on Tuesday evening at Duane Banks Field.

Iowa (27-12, 17-4) batted .297 and collected 11 hits to Western Illinois’ eight. The Hawkeyes left 12 runners on base.

“We gave them too many free bases,” said head coach Rick Heller. “They were swining it, we knew that coming in that they could swing it. That it wasn’t just one or two guys, that there were several that the way they were playing right now we would have to pitch well. On a night like tonight you just have to outscore them, and we didn’t.”

Iowa scored its first run in the bottom of the fifth when Gable Mitchell hit an RBI double to score Andy Nelson. In the seventh, Daniel Rogers smacked an RBI single up the middle to score Mitchell. Miles Risley scored Iowa’s third and final run on a solo bomb in the bottom of the ninth.

The Leathernecks (12-24, 5-10) got on the board in the first inning on a fielder’s choice RBI and then scored three in the fifth on an RBI single, walk and wild pitch. Western Illinois added two more runs in the seventh and one in the ninth.

Daniel Wright got the start for the Hawkeyes and was tagged with the loss. He gave up one earned run over three innings of work, battling out of two bases loaded jams in the first and third innings. Wright gave up five hits, walked two and struck out three.

Four other pitchers saw the mound for Iowa. The Hawkeye pitching staff combined for 15 strikeouts and gave up 10 free bases.

“It was a combination of bad luck,” said Heller. “We hit a bunch of balls in the third, fourth and fifth that were just smoked that we didn’t get rewarded for. Then when we try to get things going and we are in a good place, we had some horrendous at bats at the wrong time.”

Up Next

The Hawkeyes will host St. Thomas tomorrow at 6:02 p.m. (CDT). The game will be broadcast on B1G+ and the Hawkeye Radio Network.