Gold rallies to sweep the Black & Gold World Series

Rick Heller was rooting for Black team to pick up a win to force a Game 3 in the Black & Gold World Series, so his guys could play in one more meaningful game before the fall season wrapped up. He was also coaching the Black team. Unfortunately for Heller, Gold used a three run fifth inning to rally past Black and clinch the series with a 5-4 win.

Game 2 started the same way the first game did with Black getting on the board in the first inning. Michael Seegers drew a leadoff walk against Gold starter Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue to get some traffic on the bases. Connor Hennings delivered a two out single to drive in Seegers and give Black the 1-0 lead.

Cadieux-Lanoue settled in from there and turned in a good start. He allowed three runs on four hits over 3.2 innings, but had just two three ball counts and six two ball counts in 15 batters faced. The true freshman from Quebec was consistently hitting the zone with all pitches, including his changeup and curveball.

“Elliot’s changeup was really good, just pounded the zone with his offspeed was pretty solid,” said Heller. “Gave up a home run, but I thought he pitched really well.”

Cade Obermueller struck out the side in the first inning, but got in trouble in the second inning and allowed Gold to tie the game. A walk, single and error loaded the bases with nobody out. Gable Mitchell drew a bases loaded walk to tie the game, but Obermueller got a pair of strikeouts and a popout to limit the damage. He struck out seven and walked three over 2.2 innings of work.

“Cade’s first inning was great. He got a shutdown inning after the Black team scored a run. The inning they scored (2nd), starts with a leadoff walk. Two walks and an error and that was the story today for the Black team. Free bases cost them big time.”

In the fourth inning, Connor Hennings put Black team in front with a 432-foot, two-run home run to straightaway centerfield. Hennings went 3/3 with three RBI’s and was a triple short of the cycle. Sam Hart tossed a scoreless inning in the bottom of the fourth with a couple of strikeouts to keep the lead intact.

“(Hennings) has done a great job. He’s been working on a lot of things with his hitting and sometimes when guys are making some chagnes, they tend to not have a results driven fall and that’s understandable, but he’s showed flashes of power and flashes of being a really good hitter,” said Heller. “Today, off of some really good arms, he had three balls that were hit right on the nose…I was really happy with Connor’s fall and hopefully we can continue to make strides with some things over the winter.”

After a three up, three down inning in the fourth, Sam Hart ran into trouble in the fifth inning. Back-to-back hit by pitches put two runners on base with just one out. Sam Petersen followed with an eight pitch walk and all the sudden bases were loaded. Andy Nelson cut the lead to 3-2 with a sacrifice fly, which brought Blake Guerin to the plate with two outs and two runners in scoring position. If Rick Heller had a chance to go back, he would have put Guerin on base. Instead, with a 3-0 count, Hart fired a fastball over the plate and Guerin ripped a 110 mph line drive up the middle to drive in a pair of runs to give Gold a 4–3 lead.

On the mound, Reece Beuter came on for Gold and was electric. He retired all seven batters he faced, with three strikeouts and under 25 pitches. In the bottom of the sixth inning, Gold added an insurance run on a Ben Swails 404-foot home run to make it 5-3. That extra run proved to be the difference.

“The key to the game for the Gold team winning was how well Reece Beuter threw. He was outstanding and that was the best outing of the week in my opinion.”

In the seventh, Connor Hennings doubled off of Ben DeTaeye for his third hit of the day and advanced to third base on an error. All the sudden, Black had a rally going. Will Mulflur drove in Hennings with a sacrifice fly, but it wasn’t enough. DeTaeye got Reese Moore to pop out to shortstop and Gold earned the 5-4 victory to clinch the World Series.

The Gold pitching staff allowed four runs on five hits over 7.0 innings, including five strikeouts to just one walk. On the other side, Black struck out 11, but walked four and hit three batters. Of the eight free bases given up, four came around to score.

Over the course of the fall, the depth of the pitching staff stood out, while different names stepped up in different games on the offensive side. Overall, Rick Heller is really happy with where the team stands going into the winter.

“I really like where we’re at. I feel like a lot of the stuff that we needed to work on, on the pitching side, Sean (McGrath) is a couple weeks ahead of where we maybe thought we would be and our pitchers usually make big strides between now and the day they go home for Christmas,” said Heller. “You think about it in those terms, you feel really good about the depth of the pitching staff and you feel really good about multiple options for roles and good competitions for roles.”

“Offensively, we had some work to do, but I feel like we’re in a decent place as we head into the offseason and same with our hitting, that’s the time that a lot of guys really make jumps and get better…I would say we’re in a great place and really looking forward to working hard this offseason.”

Up Next: The next time the Iowa Baseball team takes the field for a game, it will be for the season opener in Charleston, South Carolina against the Seton Hall Pirates on February 16th.