Brennen Dorighi homers twice, Hawkeyes defeat Illinois State
The Illinois State Redbirds always gives the Iowa Baseball team a good fight. Doesn’t matter if they are near the top of the Missouri Valley or sitting near the bottom, when the Redbirds face Iowa, the Hawkeyes always find themselves in a close one. In fact, the last three meetings saw Illinois State come out on the side of victory. Tonight, the Hawkeyes avenged their early season loss in Normal and took down the Redbirds 7-4, despite wind gusts of 30+ mph in Iowa City.
“I thought it was a really good game, a well played game by us,” said head coach Rick Heller. “A blip here or there with a couple of the guys that we ran out there, but the majority of them did a really nice job.”
After the first two batters of the game, it felt like a “here we go again” moment with Illinois State. Shai Robinson led off the game with a double that snuck just inches inside the first base bag. Auggie Rasmussen followed with an RBI single that dropped just in front of the glove of a diving Kyle Huckstorf in centerfield. It was 1-0 Redbirds before fans could even open their Busch Light and grab and handful of popcorn. Ty Langenberg settled in and got a strikeout, as well as a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning.
“Ball shoots down the right field line on a really good pitch by Ty and then, boom, single and they score and it’s like holy cow, here we go,” said Heller. “Ty settled in and I thought was really good tonight.”
In the bottom of the inning, the Hawkeyes flipped the momentum and took advantage of a couple of free bases from Illinois State starter Thomas Harper. Harper issued back-to-back walks to begin the inning and Brennen Dorighi came to the plate looking to do some damage. He did just that with a no doubt three-run home run over the right field wall to give Iowa a 3-1 lead.
“I would by lying to you if I said after the first inning they scored, after this weekend, we were all a little bit like, here we go. I think just righting the ship and getting the momentum back on our side and settling things down was huge there,” said Dorighi. “He was struggling a little bit to get the slider in the strike zone, so I knew I was going to get a heater. I was looking looking for one middle in with the way the wind was blowing and ended up getting one.”
The Redbirds got a run back in the second inning, as Cade Obermueller had some command issues. He had three walks and a hit by pitch in the frame, but got a strikeout to limit the damage to just one run. Chas Wheatley followed with a 1-2-3 inning in the third, while Brody Brecht tossed a 1-2-3 inning the fourth inning. He threw just 12 pitches, but it was a promising appearance after a rough outing in State College.
“It was his choice. He could have thrown a bullpen and worked on some stuff with Sean (McGrath) or go out there and throw and get back on the horse and that was what he chose,” said Coach Heller. “That was really good to see…I felt like tonight, he was in control of himself in a situation that he hadn’t been in, coming out of the bullpen, in a long time,”
After a couple of zeros on the scoreboard from the pitching staff, the Iowa offense added a pair of runs in the bottom of the fourth. Sam Hojnar led off the inning with a solo home run to right field, his seventh of the season to make it 4-2 Hawkeyes. Michael Seegers followed with a single and proceeded to steal two bases, which set the table for Ben Wilmes. Wilmes laid down a good bunt and Seegers came across to extend the Iowa lead to 5-2.
The Redbirds weren’t going to go quietly and they tightened things back up in the fifth inning off of Zach Voelker. After retiring the first batter of the inning, Voelker allowed four straight hits, including a two-run single from Shaydon Kubo that cut the Iowa advantage to 5-4. Coach Heller went to the bullpen and brought in Jacob Henderson. His efforts may have saved the game for the Hawkeyes. He retired two in a row to finish the inning and then came out and tossed a 1-2-3 sixth inning to keep the lead in check.
“Henderson, his performance kind of saved the game. It was in the balance right there,” said Heller. “Zack comes in and was missing in the middle part of the plate and they had four hits in a row. Things were swinging fast and and Jacob came in and stopped it, then went out and had another quality inning. I think Jacob is in a really good place right now.”
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With the Redbirds suddenly knocking on the door, Brennen Dorighi decided that he had more fireworks left in his bat for Tuesday evening. He took a 1-2 offering from reliever Zach Holcomb and sent in flying into the large pine tree beyond the right field wall for his second home run of the game.
“The lefty was kind of flipping in sliders. They were trying to keep me off balance and I was able to just stay through the ball keep it in fair territory,” said Dorighi. It was the second game in his college career where he has hit two home runs. He did it last year with Wofford in a game against Samford. “Anytime you can get good swings on the field and get results out of it is huge. Even more than that, it’s just cool to see how much it affects the team morale and showing everyone else that we can do it.”
Jared Simpson and Will Christophersen followed Henderson out of the bullpen and put up back-to-back scoreless innings, including five strikeouts. The two combined to throw 31 of their 43 (72.1%) pitches for strikes.
“When (Will) can throw his fastball in the low 90’s with the slider and the cutter and the other stuff that he has, he’s pretty tough, He’s close to unhittable,” said Heller. “The thing that you’ve got to love with Will is when you see him throw the fastball with conviction. You saw him at 93 mph tonight.”
The Hawkeyes were able to add an insurance run in the eighth. Zach Holcomb retired the first two batters of the inning, but Kyle Huckstorf drove one over the head of RF Luke Lawrence and raced to third for a two out triple. Sam Hojnar followed with a hard hit RBI single back up the middle to give the Hawkeyes a 7-4 lead.
In the ninth, it was Luke Llewellyn that came out of the bullpen with an opportunity to pick up a save. He walked the leadoff batter, but responded, retiring three batters in a row, including a pair of strikeouts to nail down the Hawkeye victory.
Brennen Dorighi and Michael Seegers each had three hits on the night, while Sam Hojnar added two hits. Ben Wilmes drew two walks and reached base three times. Dorighi and Hojnar combined for six of the Hawkeyes seven RBI’s on the night.
Up next for the Hawkeyes…
With the win, Iowa moves to 32-11 on the season, while they moved up a spot to #37 in the RPI. Up next, the Hawkeyes will welcome Ohio State to Iowa City for a three-game series. The Buckeyes dropped a midweek game at Wright State tonight, 3-1. The series opener on Friday is set for a 6:05pm first pitch on BTN+.
