Oregon battles back for second straight win over Iowa, forces 3-way tie atop the Big Ten Conference baseball standings

IOWA CITY – Iowa had a chance to shut the door on Oregon.

Instead, the Hawkeyes left it ajar and the Ducks barged through for another victory.

Oregon scored six runs in the final three innings and overcame a four-run deficit with four innings remaining for a 9-6 comeback victory over Iowa in a Big Ten Conference baseball game in front of a record-setting crowd of 3,339 fans Friday night at Duane Banks Field. Oregon has taken the first two of the final three-game regular-season series.

“It was pretty simple,” Iowa Coach Rick Heller said. “Turned over to the bullpen with a 6-3 lead going into the seventh. It needs to be over and they didn't get it done.

“They gave up six runs in the last three innings, you're not going to win, especially against a team like that. That's where it went wrong.”

Oregon continued its hot streak with its ninth straight win. UCLA defeated Northwestern, 8-2, Friday, creating a three-way tie for first between the Hawkeyes, Ducks and Bruins at 21-8 with one game left for each. Heller said the message to his team was simple and direct, attempting to transition from Friday’s setback to another chance to capture a conference title.

“This one hurts because you blew a lead but hey, here's a deal, we got one more shot at this,” Heller said. “We got one more chance to come out and find a way to get it done. We, at the very worst, can get a share of the Big Ten championship. One more opportunity to go out there and play our best baseball. That's the message.”

The Hawkeyes (32-19-1, 21-8) seemed to snap out of an offensive funk that included nine straight scoreless innings to open the Oregon set. They tallied three runs in the third.

Andy Nelson was plunked to lead off the inning and Reese Moore followed with an opposite-field double down the line. Nelson tied the game, 1-1, scoring on Gable Mitchell’s sacrifice fly. Caleb Wulf had an RBI infield single and Miles Risley added a run-scoring double for a three-run lead/

It was Iowa’s highest single-inning run total in the last 33, dating back to the fourth inning of Game 1 in the Oregon State series on May 9.

“The guys fought hard,” Heller said. “It was good to see the bats wake up today. The game started out similar to the way it did yesterday. We started to get it going.”

Iowa scored in the next two innings, getting a leadoff double from Kellen Strohmeyer, who scored on a Moore fielder’s choice in the fourth.

Wulf and Rogers made it 6-2 in the fifth, belting back-to-back home runs to right field. The Hawkeyes offense went dormant the rest of the way.

“It was good to get the bats going and that energy back,” Heller said. “It had been a rough few games for the offense. To break out a little bit was good.

“The thing you have to tip your hat to is a couple of those innings could have ended up being big innings and they did a great job of minimizing the damage. (Oregon) held it close to where they could fight back and claw back into it.”

The Ducks (40-13, 21-8) chipped away against the Hawkeyes bullpen with one in the fifth, another in the sixth and took the lead with a four-run seventh. Oregon received three hits and hit batsman from the first four batters, including an RBI double from Jacob Walsh. Drew Smith, who drove in Walsh for the initial run in the first, provided an RBI single and came in with the go-ahead run on Ryan Cooney’s RBI double.

Oregon added two runs in the top of the ninth for some insurance runs.

“We didn't answer back after the big inning that Oregon put up on us,” Heller said. “We needed to keep it a one-run game, going into the ninth, and we were unable to do that.”

Heller said the team still felt it could pull out the victory until the final out. Iowa did bring the tying run to the plate twice in the bottom of the ninth but couldn’t conjure up late magic, grounding into two straight outs to end the game.

“They fought hard,” Heller said. “They played hard. Oregon's good and they're hot right now. They're in a good place and tough to beat, right now, but I felt like our guys effort tonight was great. Unfortunately, the bullpen didn't get the job done.”

The loss spoiled a quality start from former Dubuque Wahlert prep Aaron Savary. He went 5 2/3 innings, allowing three runs on seven hits. With what seemed like gale-force winds blowing out to right field for most of the game, Savary gave up two solo home runs but never gave up a big inning.

“I actually thought he may end up going another inning it was going so good for him,” Heller said. “I was really happy to see him bounce back and give us a legitimate chance to win, a game we should have been able to hold on to with the guys that we had back there. He showed a lot of toughness, bouncing back after a tough one last week.”

Iowa and Oregon close the regular season here Saturday at 12:02 p.m.

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