IU was swept in its three-game series at Iowa, falling 2-0, 5-1 and 10-6. The losses dropped the team’s record to 16-8 and 1-4 in Big Ten play.
The Hoosiers had dominated the Hawkeyes in recent years, winning 17 of their last 19 meetings.
Iowa Coach Rick Heller was pleased to see a strong series to start the conference season 3-0.
“When you have the opportunity to win three against one of the league favorites and you take advantage of it, it is a big deal,” Heller said in a press release.
Games one and two saw IU junior Caleb Baragar and sophomore Jake Kelzer pitch quality starts, allowing just one run in seven and six innings, respectively.
“They both have really good fastballs and really good curveballs,” senior catcher Brad Hartong said. “When you have two pitchers that go out and pitch seven innings and only give up one run, we usually feel like we have a pretty good chance to win. We are a confident group when they’re pitching.”
With junior Scott Effross battling injuries, their performances have pleased IU Coach Chris Lemonis.
“They compete and have given us quality starts,” Lemonis said. “When you get a quality start you always have a chance to win.”
However, their starts weren’t enough, as the Hoosier offense could never get going.
“The pitching from Iowa the first two games was tremendous,” Lemonis said. “But we still didn’t compete enough offensively.”
IU collected just eight hits in the first two games ?combined.
“They had two pretty good arms,” Hartong said. “But we were getting out of our approach and didn’t really put together good at-bats like we should be and are capable of.”
Game three was higher scoring. It saw a combined 29 hits between the two teams.
Effross struggled mightily, getting pulled with just one out in the first inning after ?allowing six earned runs.
“Two of those balls, (Iowa) didn’t hit them very well, they just kind of dropped in,” Hartong said. “After that I think he was just trying to do too much. He was trying to make things happen. He just has to keep pounding the strike zone and let his defense make plays behind him. But he’ll ?figure it out.”
IU trailed by five entering the eighth inning and scored three runs to bring the score to 8-6.
With two on base and two outs, IU was unable to add more.
“There aren’t many positives when you go on the road and get swept,” Lemonis said.
Iowa added two more in the bottom of the eighth and then held IU with runners on base again in the ninth to seal the win.
“The effort was there, just not the focus,” Lemonis said. “We need more focus. We need to be more disciplined in what we do.”
