Iowa comes up short against Ohio State in Big Ten baseball championship

OMAHA, Neb. – A comeback bid fell just short and a season ended as the Ohio State Buckeyes beat the Iowa Hawkeyes 8-7 in the championship game of the Big Ten baseball tournament.

The loss knocks the Hawkeyes from NCAA tournament contention. Iowa needed to win the tournament to secure the Big Ten conference's automatic berth.

Ronnie Dawson, the tournament's most outstanding player, knocked a two-out single in the ninth, and Troy Kuhn punched a double down the left-field line to score Dawson and give the Buckeyes the lead.

After a three-run eighth inning featuring the heroics of senior Devin Pickett, who knocked in the game tying run the first time the Hawkeyes played Ohio State in this tournament, the Hawkeyes simply came up short Sunday.

Pickett pinch hit a single to get on base, and Tyler Peyton hit a two-RBI double to bring the game within one run, 7-6. Joel Booker provided an RBI single to tie the game moments later.

'We were playing for a regional berth, and they were just playing for a title,' Booker said. 'At the end of the day it came down to who wanted it more.'

Iowa played errorless baseball, and short of missed opportunities with runners on base in the fourth to the seventh innings, it played well enough to keep the game in striking distance.

Calvin Matthews, who has battled shoulder injuries for most of his Hawkeye career, was pulled after throwing three scoreless innings, facing the minimum, and re-injuring his shoulder. Ryan Erickson, who relieved Matthews, was charged with five runs in the top of the fourth, giving Ohio State a 5-4 lead.

All runs were earned, however, and head coach Rick Heller said he had no second thoughts on the way he used his pitchers.

'I have no regrets,' Heller said. 'We had no walks in the game, we had no errors in the game.'

Aside from the fourth frame, the Hawkeye defense played well, with a few bad breaks. Even Kuhn's eventual game winning double came in a no-doubles defense. It spun down the left field line and careened off the corner before Pickett, who took over left field from Eric Schenck-Joblinske, could corral it.

After the big eighth inning from the top of the order, the bottom could not muster another comeback against the Buckeyes.

'We knew it was going to be slugfest,' Booker said. 'We knew they weren't going to roll over.'

The Buckeyes were not deterred after the Hawkeyes lept to a 4-0 lead on a three-run third inning, and did not show signs of slowing down later in the game with a 5-4 lead.

Erickson's relief, CJ Eldred, entered with one out in the fourth and continued to allow runners on, and although Eldred eventually got the Hawkeyes out of the inning and settled in for a stretch, the damage had been done.

'In the fourth inning they just couldn't miss a barrel,' Heller said. 'You have to tip your hat. They hammered us.'

Of particular damage was Dawson, who set a tournament record with 15 hits over the long weekend.

The left fielder also robbed the Hawkeyes in the field on more than one occasion.

'It was crazy how hot he was,' Heller said. Facing Dawson in the ninth, Heller said reliever Josh Martsching tried to pitch around the Ohio State star. 'We were trying to pitch it just out of the zone, so even if he did hit it it was going to be a single.'

With Dawson ranging the field, a walk off game winner similar to the one provided by Mason McCoy on Friday, who flew out with the bases loaded to end the eighth inning Sunday, was not repeated, and the Hawkeye careers of Booker, Matthews, Peyton and many other key players are now over.

The Hawkeyes appeared dead in the water heading to the bottom of the eighth inning, and although a comeback was not to be, they say they never considered they would lose the game.

'We never doubted that we were out of this game ever,' Peyton said. 'You saw what we did a couple days ago against Ohio State.'

Booker echoed Peyton's words and noted the unlikely run the Hawkeyes went on to even make the final day of the tournament.

'Eight seed, going to the championship, having a chance to win it, losing by one run, I don't think anybody saw that coming,' Booker said.