Iowa baseball season ends with controversial call in Big Ten tournament loss to Illinois

Iowa’s baseball season came to a conclusion Thursday afternoon after an invalid fair catch signal penalty foiled a potential late rally for a win.

Wait, wrong sport. Wrong controversial call.

The Hawkeyes did fall to Illinois, 4-2, in 10 innings in a Big Ten tournament loser’s bracket game at Omaha’s Charles Schwab Field. And an umpire’s call upheld after official video review did play a part in it.

Iowa had the bases loaded and none out in the bottom of the 10th when Michael Seegers sliced a grounder to first that Illinois first baseman Drake Westcott fielded. Westcott threw to second base for a forceout, with Illinois shortstop Cal Hejza’s throw to first for a potential double play being late and not fielded cleanly by Illinois relief pitcher Joe Glassey.

That made it a 4-3 game with Iowa runners on the corners with one out. Or not.

The second-base umpire ruled Hawkeye pinch runner Kyle Huckstorf slid improperly into second base, though he appeared to go straight into the bag without touching the fielder. That meant he was out, Seegers was out and the runners originally at second and third had to return to those bases.

The ruling was upheld after Iowa challenged and sent things to official video review. An irate Iowa Coach Rick Heller sprinted from his dugout to argue and was virtually immediately ejected.

Glassey then struck out Ben Wilmes swinging, and that was that: a frustrating, underachieving season done with two extra-inning Big Ten tournament losses, the second coming thanks in part to a judgment call almost every Hawkeyes fan, coach and player strongly felt was wrong.

“How it all went down at the end, I don’t really understand,” Heller said. “I still don’t know what they saw on the double play, and I’ve watched it plenty of times. To have it end like that ... I don’t really know what else to say.”

Illinois (34-18) took a 2-0 lead in this one, with Iowa tying it in the bottom of the sixth inning on a Gable Mitchell RBI single and successful squeeze bunt from Cade Moss. That’s the way it stayed until the 10th.

A one-out Jacob Schroeder single for the Illini was followed by a double into the right-field corner by Brody Harding, older brother of Iowa basketball player Brock Harding. Coltin Quagliano then singled through the left side of a drawn-in infield to score Schroeder and Harding.

Ganon Archer took the loss in relief for Iowa.

The Hawkeyes finished 31-23, well shy of expectations considering the number of important players returned from last season’s NCAA tournament team.

Things just never seemed to come together for this group, with pitching being inconsistent and the offense hindered by injuries.

“Just like yesterday, we played hard and competed hard,” Heller said. “But we didn’t play our best baseball.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com