Iowa baseball suffers extra-inning heartbreak in Big Ten tournament first round against Michigan

The Iowa Hawkeyes get a shot at regular-season champ and top-seeded Illinois in the Big Ten baseball tournament on Thursday morning.

It’s not as good a deal as you might think.

A leadoff single followed by three consecutive walks in the bottom of the 10th inning plated the winning run as Michigan beat Iowa, 3-2, in a first-round game Wednesday afternoon at Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field. Michigan is the field’s fourth seed and Iowa its fifth.

Eighth-seeded Penn State shocked Illinois earlier Wednesday, 8-4, so it’s the Illini and Hawkeyes in an elimination game, not a winner’s bracket game. Illinois still has a shot at an NCAA tournament at-large berth regardless, but Iowa needs to win this tournament to get in.

“We couldn’t get it going offensively,” Iowa Coach Rick Heller said. “Anything that we did do, happened late. We couldn’t get leadoff guys on to try to make things happen and put some pressure on them. We had a couple opportunities to execute, and we didn’t get that done, either. It cost us, and it cost us big.”

If this was the final game of his collegiate career, Iowa starting pitcher Brody Brecht went out with a proverbial flourish. Projected as a late first-round MLB draft pick, the junior right-hander gave his club 7 1/3 innings and 113 pitches.

Using his slider a lot, he held Michigan (31-26) to just four hits, walking a pair, hitting four and striking out 10. The lone wild pitch he threw ended up allowing the Wolverines to score their first two runs.

With Iowa ahead, 1-0, Michigan loaded the bases in the sixth inning with none out. Brecht seemed on the verge of pitching out of the trouble by getting a short fly and strikeout, but he buried a breaking ball that eluded catcher Cade Moss just enough to allow one run to score, with Moss’ throw to the plate getting past Brecht and scoring another run.

“It is frustrating for us when they beat us 3-2 and didn't have a hit to score any of those runs,” said Heller. “They were all from free bases. We had the wild pitch that we throw away with two outs that scores two runs and then we walk in a run to end the game.”

Earlier in the game, Brecht had pitched out of another bases-loaded jam by getting an inning-ending 1-2-3 double play.

Iowa came right back to tie things in the top of the seventh on a Ben Wilmes RBI double to right-center field. The Hawkeyes took an early lead in the second when Wilmes scored on a Michael Seegers double.

Raider Tello lined a two-out single to center field in the top of the 10th for Iowa, with Davis Cop then ripping a double to left that Michigan left fielder A.J. Garcia mishandled enough at the fence for third-base coach Heller to wave home Tello in an attempt to score.

But Michigan second baseman Mack Timbrook was backing up a teammate who was the intended target of Garcia’s throw back to the infield, fielded the ball and threw perfectly to home to nab Tello.

Jonathan Kim opened the bottom of the 10th with a single to left. Iowa relief pitcher Jack Young then walked Stephen Hrustich on a 3-1 pitch, Collin Priest on a 3-2 pitch and Mitch Voit on another full-count pitch to end the game.

Young has been Iowa’s top reliever this season. So now it’s literally win or go home for the Hawkeyes (31-22). Sophomore Cade Obermueller is expected to be Iowa’s starting pitcher Thursday morning, though everyone (sans Brecht) should be available to throw.

There is zero margin of error.

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