Iowa hit .152 and totaled five hits to Oregon State’s six. Eight Hawkeyes were left on base and Iowa was punched out 16 times.

“When you have two good pitchers on the mound and two good teams playing each other a lot of times it’s going to go like this,” said head coach Rick Heller. “They are going to have a few opportunities and you are going to have a few. The difference in this game was that we walked the leadoff guy in the fourth and they hit a home run, then we walked a guy, hit a guy and they doubled. There’s four runs right there. We had opportunities like that, not a lot but we did, at least three. With two runners on and two outs where we needed a hit and we didn’t get a hit. They just beat us.”

Oregon State (37-12) started the scoring in the third inning with a two-run bomb and two RBI double in the third inning. The Beavers scored one more in the seventh.

Iowa (32-17, 21-6) got its first hit in the fourth when Ben Wilmes producded a leadoff single, but he was left stranded. The Hawkeyes got on the board in the sixth after a Caleb Wulf two-out RBI single, but that was it for the offense.

Wulf was the only Hawkeye to have a multi-hit game, going 2-for-4.

RHP Aaron Savary started on the hill and suffered his first loss of the season. He pitched 4 1/3 innings, giving up four runs on four hits while punching out five. Tyler Guerin and Daniel Wright came out of the bullpen and struck out two batters each.

The Iowa pitching staff combined for nine punch outs and eight free bases.

“It is always disappointing when the runs they scored weren’t really earned, they were free bases,” said Heller. “They didn’t give us a lot. That is the thing Whitney did a nice job of he just pounded the zone.”

Up Next

The Hawkeyes and Beavers will close out the series tomorrow at 12:05 p.m. (CDT). The game will be broadcast on B1G+ and the Hawkeye Radio Network.