Hawkeyes stumble late, fall to Nebraska 6-4 in the series finale

After taking the first two games of the series in dramatic fashion, the Hawkeyes bid at a weekend sweep came up short on Sunday. Nebraska scored two runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth to pull out a 6-4 win at Duane Banks Field.

Despite taking two of three on the weekend and winning their sixth Big Ten series, head coach Rick Heller was far from satisfied.

“We had an opportunity to make a big statement today and we laid an egg,” said Heller. “That’s the lesson, you’ve got to show up every freaking day and we’ve talked about this a million times, if we play like that, we can lose to anybody.”

With the loss the Hawkeyes fall to 23-11 overall and 14-4 in Big Ten play. They still hold a slim, half-game lead over UCLA for the top spot in the conference standings.

Player of the Game

• RHP Reece Beuter: After a couple of rocky starts, Beuter was solid against the Huskers, allowing three runs on three hits over 5.0 innings. He struck out seven, one short of a career high.

Reece Beuter pitches well, Huskers take the lead with solo home runs

Coming into Sunday’s start, Reece Beuter had given up five runs on nine hits in 5.2 innings over his last two starts. He’d also struggled a bit with his command, giving up 12 free bases over his last 15.2 innings. If the Hawkeyes were going to finish off the sweep of the Huskers, they were going to need a good start out of Beuter.

“I thought he was a lot better today. I didn’t like the way the first inning went and I kind of challenged him a little bit. I know Coach (Sean) Kenny and I thought he really responded, went out and gave us a good start.”

Reece allowed three runs on three hits over 5.0 innings, totaling seven strikeouts to zero walks, although he did give up two hit by pitches. He threw 46 of his 73 (63.0%) pitches for strikes.

His outing did not get off to a good start, hitting two of the three batters, putting two Huskers on with one out. He buckled down, retiring Tyler Stone (3U) and Will Jesske (6-3) to end the inning.

Beuter gave up just three hits on the day, but they were all loud. Josh Overbeek led off the second inning with a solo home run, while Tyler Stone and Dylan Carey each hit solo shots in the fourth inning to give Nebraska a 3-1 lead. Despite the home runs, Reece retired 12 of the final 15 batters he faced, averaging 14.6 pitches per inning.

“Three solo home runs. With the way the wind was blowing, you felt like you were going to give up a home run or two. I’m just glad that they weren’t two and three-run home runs.”

Nebraska errors give Iowa the lead, Hawkeyes fail to take full advantage

Trailing 3-1 in the bottom of fourth inning, the Hawkeyes answered the Huskers solo home runs with a pair of runs of their own. It wasn’t without a good bit of help from the Nebraska defense.

Caleb Wulf led off the inning with a single, while Andy Nelson reached on an error by third baseman Josh Overbeek, putting two runners on with just one out. The Huskers went to the bullpen, calling on Tucker Timmerman, looking for a groundball to get them out of the jam.

With a 1-1 count, Ben Wilmes hit a harder grounder right at shortstop Dylan Carey, but the ball went right past him, allowing Wulf to score from second base. With two runners in scoring position and just one out, blood was in the water, but the Hawkeyes allowed the Huskers to escape with minimal damage.

Gable Mitchell drove in a run with a sacrifice fly to deep right-center field, but Reese Moore struck out looking with the go-ahead run standing on second base.

In the seventh, another Nebraska error gave Iowa a chance to take control. After Moore was hit by a pitch, Miles Risley reached on a second error from Dylan Carey. Daniel Rogers made it hurt, slashing an RBI single into left field, putting the Hawkeyes in front 4-3. However, they had a chance to do more damage.

Nebraska reliever Casey Daiss got Kooper Schulte to strike out with two runners on base, while Jackson Beaman went down swinging with the bases loaded. Another missed opportunity at a crooked number.

“The biggest problem was us not being patient enough to see if we could wait them out and go deeper in counts,” said Heller. “We started to press. Normally, the way this team handles themselves, there’s no worry…They seemed to press a little bit and my message (after the game), you can’t, you just have to stay who you are.”

#Hawkeyes plate one

Wilmes reaches on an error that scores Wulf from second! pic.twitter.com/kbXYxSi3Ev

— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) April 13, 2025

Iowa returns the favor; errors give Nebraska the lead back in the 8th

Despite the missed opportunities to pile on and build a lead, the Hawkeyes took a 4-3 lead into the eighth inning. However, instead of recording the final six outs and earning a sweep, Iowa returned the favor that Nebraska did them earlier in the game defensively.

After Daniel Wright issued a leadoff walk, Max Beuttenback shot a double into the right field corner. The Huskers were content with holding Rhett Stokes at third base, but an errant throw allowed Stokes to score easily from third. In the ensuing at-bat, Tyler Stone grounded one at defensive replacement Ben Swails, but he threw it away, allowing Buettenback to score. It would have difficult to escape two in scoring position with no outs, but the Hawkeyes handed them two runs.

“Something we hadn’t seen in a long, long time or all year really was the meltdown snowball fight that we had. I don’t know what happened,” said Heller. “Andy threw it and I don’t know if it slipped out his hand or what, but the ball went rolling over by second base. Then Ben makes a nice play and throws it away and gives them another run.”

Hawkeye bats fail to get the big hit that won them the game on Saturday

With everything that happened on the defensive side in the top of the eighth, Iowa got an ample opportunity to rectify things in the bottom of the inning.

Ben Wilmes reached with a one out double, while Gable Mitchell worked a walk, putting two on, with just one out. However, the big hit just never came. Grant Cleavinger struck out Reese Moore, while Luke Broderick came on and got Miles Risley to line out to left field.

Nebraska tacked on a run in the top of the ninth on a Max Buettenback single, making the comeback even tougher. The tying run came to the plate twice in the bottom of the ninth. Blake Guerin popped out, while Mitch Wood flew out to deep, deep center field to end the game. Riley Silva lept up and caught the ball at the wall just a few feet short of a game-tying home run. On the day, Iowa was just 3/20 with runners on base.

“That’s probably the biggest story, is that we only had a couple of opportunities, but we didn’t put up a crooked number,” said Heller. “We’ve had some days where it didn’t go well, but eventually someone came through with the clutch hit and broke it open and today it just didn’t happen.”

What’s next for Rick Heller and Co?

The Hawkeyes will return to Duane Banks Field on Wednesday for a midweek matchup against the Bradley Braves. First pitch is set for 6:02pm CT on BTN+