Hawkeyes rally late, fall to Illinois State

Illinois State has become a thorn in the side of the Iowa Baseball team over the last few years. The Hawkeyes haven’t performed well when traveling to Duffy Bass Field, but it spilled over to Duane Banks Field on Tuesday night. A late eighth inning rally made things interesting, but Iowa couldn’t pull off the comeback, falling 6-5 to the Redbirds.

“It was a really strange game,” said head coach Rick Heller. “They had six runs in the fourth inning, but other than that, I thought we pitched lights out against a good offense…Take out the fourth inning, it’s a 1-0 game going into the late innings before we broke out.”

With the loss, the Hawkeyes fall to 31-13 on the season and drop both games in the home-and-home series with Illinois State.

Players of the Game

• DH Reese Moore: Shuffled a couple of spots down in the batting order, Moore tallied a team-high three hits on the night.
• RHP Justin Hackett: Hackett tossed 2.0 scoreless innings out of the bullpen, totaling five strikeouts. He threw 24 of his 30 pitches for strikes.

ISU starter Carter Monke silences the Hawkeye bats through seven innings

Almost a carbon copy of his performance a month ago in Normal, junior right-hander Carter Monke was lights out for the Redbirds on the mound. It’s seemingly something about seeing the Hawkeye uniform in the other dugout that gets Monke to pitch at his best.

Despite having a 6.80 ERA, Monke held the Hawkeyes to one run through 7.0 innings, allowing just five hits, while tallying four strikeouts to no walks. Iowa hitters put the ball in play on three pitches or less in 15 at-bats in the first seven innings, leading to three hits and 12 outs. Rick Heller didn’t think the swing decisions were particularly bad, facing a pitcher that filled up the zone, throwing 69.2% of his 91 pitches for strikes.

“I thought we were swinging a lot early in the count, but he throws a lot of strikes, and a lot of those pitches were pitches that we probably should have been swinging at. We just didn’t do damage,” said Heller. “Ultimately, what we did when we did get to him, even though he’s going to throw strikes, let’s take a strike, make him pitch, make him throw more pitches, but we just weren’t on the barrel enough.”

Finally, the Hawkeyes broke through in the bottom of the eighth. A pair of doubles to begin the inning knocked Monke out of the game. Both runs would score to sour his final stat line, but it was still a very impressive start. In two starts against Iowa this season, Carter Monke allowed four runs on 14 hits over 14.0 innings, including eight strikeouts to one walk.

“I didn’t feel pressure, I didn’t feel anybody stressing. It was just, for whatever reason, we were off the barrel. You tip your hat to him; he did the same thing to us when we went there.”

Redbirds break out with a crooked number in the fourth, handful of pitches change the game

All it took for Illinois State to pull off the upset was one big inning. A dangerous offense with several big-time hitters, the Redbirds were held mostly silent, but put up a crooked number in the fourth inning.

Tyler Guerin carved through ISU’s 8-9-1 hitters in the third, but ran into some trouble in the fourth. A leadoff single from Shai Robinson was followed by a two-run home run from Daniel Pacella to give the Redbirds a 2-1 lead. A Brayden Bakes single and a hit by pitch gave ISU two on with two outs, sending Rick Heller to the bullpen.

Chas Wheatley came on, but was not sharp for the first time in several weeks. He issued a walk to Josh Outlaw, giving nine-hole hitter Luke Stulga a chance with the bases loaded. Much like Guerin did, Wheatley left a sinker up in the zone and Stulga launched a grand slam over the left field wall to make it 6-1 Illinois State. Rarely do Tyler and Chas leave sinkers up in the zone, but they missed up twice and it led to all six ISU runs.

“They had five of their seven hits in that inning, and it was hard hit balls,” said Heller. “Tyler gives up a hard-hit ball to lead the inning off, and he gives up a home run, which with his sinker, I didn’t figure that was going to happen…He’s got similar sink to Chas, which is another anomaly. Chas gives up a home run to the nine-hole hitter.”

Iowa pitching staff strikes out 16 Redbird hitters, gives the offense a chance

Unfortunately for the Iowa pitching staff, the fourth inning will cast a shadow over what was a really impressive day on the mound. Outside of the fourth inning, the Redbirds offense mustered just two hits, while they struck out 16 times on the night.

“They all attacked hitters, which is always a good thing,” said Heller. “There were a few free bases in there mixed throughout that you’d like to take out, but for the most part, they were able to hit with their off speed in fastball counts, which was really important against this team.”

Daniel Wright gave a solid start on the mound, tossing 2.0 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. Heller said that Wright had to rely on his off speed more than usual.

“Dan was really mixing. He had to get out of his comfort zone a bit, and he had to mix a lot more than he normally does. With the scouting report, he was not using his fastball as much as he normally would to start the game for two innings.”

Justin Hackett continues to make a case for a role on the weekend bullpen. He tossed 2.0 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out five hitters. Brant Hogue, Sam Hart and Anthony Watts all put up scoreless outings, combining for 3.0 innings, including six strikeouts to two walks and no hits. The pitching staff, as a whole, threw 103 of 162 (63.6%) pitches for strikes.

Hawkeyes rally with four runs in the eighth inning, come up short in the ninth

After seven innings of frustrating baseball, trailing 6-1, with Carter Monke dealing for Illinois State, the Hawkeyes finally broke through to give some hope of a comeback.

Kooper Schulte and Andy Nelson got the wheels turning on a rally, with back-to-back doubles to cut the deficit to 6-2. That forced ISU head coach Steve Holm to go to the bullpen, but the Hawkeyes hit Tresdon Rybarczyk hard.

Pinch-hitter Caleb Wulf pulled a single through the right side, putting runners on the corners with no outs. Heller turned to Kellen Strohmeyer for a pinch-hit at-bat and the dice roll was perfect. Strohmeyer took a 1-0 pitch from Rybarczyk and launched it to deep right-center for a three-run home run.

Another pitching change brought closer Joe Husak into the game. After a Gable Mitchell single, Husak retired three straight batters to keep the Illinois State lead intact.

In the ninth, Husak closed things out for the Redbirds. He recorded back-to-back strikeouts against Blake Guerin and Kooper Schulte, but Andy Nelson drew a two out walk. With pinch-hitter Jackson Beaman at the plate and facing an 0-2 count, Rick Heller dialed up a Nelson steal attempt, expecting a slider away. Husak dealt a high fastball and catcher Daniel Contreras delivered a perfect throw to second and Shai Robinson applied the tag for the final out.

“When Beaman went 0-2, I thought that he’d probably throw a slider in the dirt,” said Heller. “I guessed wrong. Ends up getting a modified pitchout with a high fastball, but I just felt like we had to get a runner on second with two strikes, two outs in the ninth.”

THE STROH SHOW!#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/eGaYC7jv32

— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) April 30, 2025

What’s next for Rick Heller and Co?

The Hawkeyes travel out west for a three-game series against the Washington Huskies at Husky Ballpark in Seattle. First pitch on Friday is set for 9:02pm CT on BTN+.