Iowa baseball falls to Indiana 5-0 to close Big Ten Tournament pool play
No. 3 seed Iowa faces two-seed UCLA in semifinals Saturday in Omaha
By Hawkeyesports.com
OMAHA, Nebraska – The third-seeded University of Iowa baseball team fell to sixth-seeded Indiana, 5-0, to close out pool play in the Big Ten Tournament at Charles Schwab Field on Thursday night.
The Hawkeyes have been shutout twice this season, with both coming in the last five games.
Iowa’s biggest threat to score came in the first inning, but the Hawkeyes left the bases loaded. Iowa totaled five hits and batted .152 overall, stranding nine base runners.
“Offensively, we knew it was going to be a challenging night with Gilley and Grable both able to throw,” said Heller. “Gilley gave us a chance in the first to jump out on top with the bases loaded. We had an opportunity with a runner on third and less than two outs, and we didn’t get him home. We hit a lot of fly balls, which is pretty uncharacteristic for this team, and it led to a lot of 1-2-3 innings.”
Indiana (32-24, 16-14) took the lead in the third inning with a three-run shot to right field. The Hoosiers added two more in the fourth to make it 5-0.
Iowa (33-21-1, 21-9) had its first extra base hit of the tournament when Gable Mitchell doubled in the eighth inning. Caleb Wulf was the lone Hawkeye to have a multi-hit game with two of Iowa’s five total hits on the night.
LHP Ben DeTaeye got the nod on the hill and was dinged with the loss. He gave up three runs on one hit, walked three and struck out four over 2 1/3 innings of work.
“DeTaeye gave us a good start,” said Heller. “He was really good the first two innings, and his pitch count was down, so we decided to go a third inning. He strikes out the first guy, then he walks two to get to Taylor and first pitch he hits a home run and we are down three runs on one hit.”
Five other Hawkeye hurlers made appearances on the mound. The pitching staff combined for nine strikeouts and 12 free bases.
“For the most part, the rest of the guys did a pretty decent job,” said Heller. “We worked out of a couple jams.”
Up Next
The Hawkeyes will face second-seeded UCLA in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals on Saturday at 6 p.m. (CDT). The game will be broadcast on Big Ten Network and the Hawkeye Radio Network.
