Hawkeyes swept by Oregon in Iowa City

The highly anticipated weekend at Duane Banks Field did not pan out as Hawkeye fans hoped it might. Oregon came into Iowa City and swept Iowa, including a 13-4 win over the Hawkeyes on Saturday afternoon in the series finale.

“We knew the challenge and we knew exactly how we had to attack it, but we just gave them too much to have any chance of beating a team that good,” said head coach Rick Heller.

With the loss, the Hawkeyes close the regular season with a 32-20-1 record and a 21-9 mark in Big Ten play. They will head to Omaha, likely, needing to win the Big Ten Tournament to make an NCAA Regional.

Player of the Game

• 3B Jaixen Frost: Frost finished with a team-high two hits, while he scored a run and made a great defensive play at third base in the second inning

Hawkeyes get on the board first, Reece Beuter does what he can in a short-stint

It was Oregon that got on the board in the first inning, both on Thursday and Friday, but the Iowa offense was able to strike first in the series finale.

Ducks starter Jason Reitz wasn’t sharp to open his outing, giving up a hit by pitch to open the game, followed by a wild pitch to advance Reese Moore to third base with one out. Caleb Wulf got the job done, driving Moore in with an RBI to give Iowa the early 1-0 lead.

On the mound, Reece Beuter got the start after missing last week due to a nerve flare up in his elbow, but was only expected to give the Hawkeyes a couple of innings. Beuter gave up a solo home run to Carter Garate in the second inning, but retired eight of the 11 batters he faced over 2.2 innings.

“Reece gave us all he had today,” said Heller. “One of the disappointing parts of today is that we didn’t have our Sunday starter that has been picking us up all year, going six, seven innings and shutting people down. He went out and gave us a good start.”

Free bases haunt the arms out of the bullpen, Ducks take advantage on several occasions

The coaching staff felt like they had a pretty good pitching plan going into the day. After three innings (or so), turn the ball over to Ben DeTaeye, with Daniel Wright and Anthony Watts still available. On paper, it looked like the Hawkeyes had plenty of pitching to get through the game. Unfortunately, the bullpen arms that entered struggled to consistently throw strikes.

“I thought we were in pretty good position after the first to days to at least give it a run, and we just didn’t get it done.”

DeTaeye was not nearly as sharp as he was a week ago against Oregon State. He threw just 18 of his 36 (50.0%) pitches for strikes, giving up three free bases and three hits. Ryan Cooney put the Ducks in front with an RBI double, while Carter Garate followed with a bunt single to drive in another run.

Iowa escaped a bases loaded nobody out situation giving up just one run in the fifth, but things really came unraveled in the sixth. Ryan Cooney led off the inning with a solo home run off of Daniel Wright, with Jacob Walsh delivering the big blow, a three-run home run, off of Anthony Watts to extend the lead to 8-1 for Oregon.

“Pretty much the entire bullpen gave it up today. I think we had eight or nine walks, and you’ve got no shot of beating that team,” said Heller. “The only it way it was going to happen for us was for them to step up and if we got beat, make it be hits and home runs, not walks and then home runs.”

The Hawkeyes were forced to use five bullpen arms after Beuter departed, with none of them recording more than six outs. They allowed 12 runs on 12 hits, while they totaled seven strikeouts to seven walks, throwing just 79 of 143 (55.2%) pitches for strikes.

Iowa plates two in the eighth, leave the bases loaded

Trailing 9-2 in the bottom of the eighth inning, the Hawkeyes tried to get the wheels turning on a storybook, miracle comeback. Consecutive bases loaded walks issued by Oregon reliever Cole Stokes to Mitch Wood and Andy Nelson cut the lead to 9-4, with Reese Moore coming to the plate. The Ducks turned to Santiago Garcia, and he was able to retire Moore with a groundout to cut the rally short.

Carter Garate puts the finishing touches on the sweep with a ninth inning home run

Leading 10-4 in the top of the ninth, nine-hole hitter Carter Garate put the exclamation point on the Ducks Big Ten championship. Garate hit his third home run of the weekend, a three-run shot, off of Tyler Guerin to make it 13-4 Oregon.

On the weekend, the Ducks put up 32 runs on 37 hits over the weekend, slugging 11 home runs. They did all of that with their leadoff hitter and the NCAA leader in home runs Mason Neville tallying just one hit over three games.

“They’re playing great baseball right now, and they’re a very talented team,” said Heller. “We knew we were going to get their best effort, and they were locked in. We knew it was going to be that way because they had a shot to still win the championship.”

What’s next for Rick Heller and Co?

The Hawkeyes head to Omaha for the Big Ten Tournament at Charles Schwab Field. Iowa earned the 3 seed and will face the 10 seed in their pool play opener on Wednesday night. First pitch is set for 6:00pm CT on the Big Ten Network.