Hawks lose in NCAA tournament

SPRINGFIELD, Mo. — A two-out rally by Missouri State in the fourth inning doomed Iowa in a 5-3 loss late Saturday night at Hammons Field and now the Hawkeyes face Oregon for a second time in the NCAA Springfield Regional with their postseason lives on the line (2 p.m. Sunday).

'It started out as a pretty good ballgame for us,' Iowa Coach Rick Heller said. 'We were able to put some pressure on Missouri State and force some defensive mistakes that we were able to take advantage of.'

Junior starter Blake Hickman was sailing along with a 2-0 lead and had only surrendered one hit ... when he appeared to lose command of the strike zone. He walked back-to-back Bears then gave up back-to-back hits and — just like that — the game was tied 2-2 before Heller could get Hickman out of the game.

'I just lost it there,' Hickman said. 'I kept trying to battle, but things didn't go my way late in that inning. Things just got away from me.'

Missouri State earned three walks, two hits and scored both runs in the fourth inning with two outs.

'Blake had good stuff when he started, but unfortunately it went away and he ended up walking a lot of guys in the middle innings and it cost us,' Heller said.

The fifth inning was all Missouri State, as the Bears pounded out four-consecutive hits and scored three runs off junior reliever Ryan Erickson to take a commanding 5-2 lead.

'Erickson came in and unfortunately he just wasn't sharp tonight,' Heller said. 'He couldn't throw any of his secondary pitches for strikes and he was struggling to locate his fastball. That was kind of our demise, because our bullpen has been solid all year long.'

The first two base hits for the Bears in the decisive fifth inning were just inches from the glove of senior second baseman Jake Mangler. The second of which gave Missouri State the lead 3-2 with just one out in the frame.

Missouri State (47-10) junior left-handed starter Matt Hall was dominating from the second inning on and didn't allow an Iowa (40-17) runner past first base until he was relieved in the bottom of the ninth. Hall went eight innings, gave up two earned runs off seven hits and struck out 11 Hawkeyes.

'He has a good breaking ball and he throws it to both righties and lefties,' Mangler said. 'He has good control of the zone … and he's struck out a lot of guys this year. That sharp 12 to 6 breaking ball keeps everybody off balance and that 85 mile per hour fastball looks a little harder at that point.'

Iowa scored two runs in the bottom of the second inning when senior Kris Goodman reached on a walk and later scored on an RBI single from junior Daniel Moriel. Junior Nick Roscetti scored the Hawkeyes' second run after reaching on a single and then scoring on a Missouri State throwing error.

Iowa will start junior right-handed pitcher Calvin Mathews against Oregon in an elimination game. Iowa beat Oregon, 3-1, Friday.

'Now it's on to the next game,' Mangler said. 'We have to come back with a new mind-set and take things the way we usually play. It's one game at a time now. We're fighting for our lives now, so right now it's just kind of get back to who we are and play our game.'