Hawkeyes survive, defeat the Tar Heels in 13 innings

Survive and advance is the name of the game for the Iowa Baseball team. The Tar Heels erased a three-run deficit late to send the game into extra innings, but the Hawkeyes scratched a run across in the 13th inning and pulled off the 6-5 win. The Hawkeyes advance to their second regional final under Rick Heller.

How we got to the 6-5 final score…

– The Tar Heels loaded the bases in the first inning with one out, including a line drive off of the non-pitching arm of Ty Langenberg. He was checked out by trainers, but stayed in the game and got a strikeout and a groundout to leave the bases juiced.

“I felt like the command was a little bit everywhere, so my biggest thing was to keep that in check,” said Langenberg. “Getting hit in the arm didn’t feel good. It bothered me a little bit, but luckily it’s my left arm, so it wasn’t that big of a deal…Kind of went into strikeout mode (with bases loaded). I needed to bear down and luckily I was able to do that.”

– UNC leadoff hitter Casey Cook put his team in front 2-0 with a two-run home run in the bottom of the second inning. Nine hitter Colby Wilkerson reached base via walk in at-bat prior.

– The Hawkeyes got on the board in the third inning off of UNC starter Cameron Padgett. Raider Tello drove in Michael Seegers with a sacrifice fly to cut the deficit in half. The true freshman Padgett went 4.1 innings and allowed one run on four hits.

– The Tar Heels starting pitcher turned it over to his bullpen in the fifth inning after allowing back-to-back singles to begin the inning. Kyle Percival relieved him, but was only in the game for two batters. Brennen Dorighi put the Hawkeyes in front with a three-run home run off of the scoreboard in right field.

– Langenberg went out for the eighth inning despite 111 pitches, but came out after allowing back-to-back hits to begin the frame. Jack Whitlock came on from the bullpen and got a pair of K’s, but Dylan King delivered a two-run double for the Tar Heels to make it 5-4.

– UNC power hitter Mac Horvath finished the game with three hits and his solo home run off of Whitlock with one out in the bottom of the ninth tied the game at 5. Horvath finished the season with 23 home runs.

– Through the first three extra innings, the two offenses combined to put just four runners on base. Dalton Pence went 4.2 innings out of the bullpen for the Heels with three strikeouts to zero walks. Will Christophersen went 4.2 innings with four strikeouts for the Hawkeyes.

– Blake Guerin started the 13th inning rally with a pinch-hit one out single. Coy Sarsfield checked in to run for him with two outs. Michael Seegers became the hero of the game on the offensive side, as his triple over the head of a diving Horvath in left-center field drove in Sarsfield to give Iowa a 6-5 lead.

“My thought was Cade (Moss) is not a big extra base hit guy and I thought if he would have hit into a double play, I wanted to have Guerin in the lineup for next round,” said head coach Rick Heller on waiting to pinch-run Sarsfield. “Once Cade was out, Seegers hits his share of extra base hits and doubles and then you had to go to a pinch runner.”

– Christophersen retired the Tar Heels 1-2-3 in the bottom of the 13th inning to finish off the Hawkeyes elimination game victory.

Three Stars of the Game

1. P Ty Langenberg

Talk about giving the team all you have in the tank. After getting drilled in the arm by a line drive in the first inning, Ty Langenberg locked in and gave the Hawkeyes a chance to stay alive. After the Casey Cook home run in the second inning, Langenberg retired 16 of his next 20 batters faced to get him through 7.0 innings.

He allowed two baserunners in the eighth and got tagged with two extra runs on the Dylan King double off of Whitlock, which makes his stat line a little worse than it was. Langenberg allowed four runs on seven hits and had six strikeouts to four walks. He threw 76 of his 122 (62.3%) pitches for strikes.

2. P Will Christophersen

The Hawekeyes simultaneously had to defeat UNC, while also attempting to save as much pitching possible for a potential next game. Will Christophersen stepped up and accomplished both tasks in the second longest outing of his college career.

He went 4.2 innings, with four strikeouts to just two walks and no hits. Ty threw 41 of his 67 (62.0%) pitches for strikes.

“He didn’t have a good night Friday against North Carolina and to see him go out and bounce back and go four plus innings…that was outstanding,” said Heller. “Had really good command and he located his fastball. Fastball command saved him a lot today. It was a great effort and a gutty effort by him and showed a lot of toughness.”

3. SS Michael Seegers

In the first nine innings of the game, Seegers was 1/3 with a single, two walks and two runs scored. In the 13th inning, he delivered the game winning hit. He took the 0-1 offering from UNC reliver Dalton Pence and hit it to the 396 sign in deep center field to drive in Coy Sarsfield. In the field he was his normal self going 5/5 on balls hit to him at shortstop.

Up next for the Hawkeyes…

With the win, Iowa moves to 44-15 and advances to the regional final against Indiana State. They will have to defeat the Sycamores twice to move on to the super regional. The win also ties the 1981 team for the most in a single season in school history. First pitch tonight is set for 5:00pm CT on ESPN+.