After a disappointing start to our conference weekend at Michigan State, we opened up our first conference homestand against Illinois. The friday night game featured 17 runs, and 22 hits between the two teams. Ryan Durant and Phil Keppler each had two hits on the night, and Chett Zeise had a three RBI game. Jarred Hippen looked to repeat his performance of a week earlier against Michigan State, but was not as sharp as he would have liked to be. After throwing a complete game at MSU, I think he was a bit fatigued coming into the weekend. He did not have his sharp curve ball or his location of his fastball, but he still gave us 6 solid innings with a chance for our bullpen to hold the lead heading into the last three innings. Illinois put up a three spot in the 8th inning to take the lead 9-8, eventually winning by the same score.

The second game, we sent Nick Brown to the hill for his second start of the year. Nick set the tone on the mound going eight strong innings only giving up 6 hits and 3 runs. Tyson Blaser, Zach McCool, Mike McQuillan and Ryan Durant each had a multi-hit game. We jumped out to a 3-0 lead after the first inning which really set the tone for the rest of the game. Illinois responded with a 3 spot of there own in the third inning but two innings later we put two more runs on the board to take the lead again. Kevin Lee came in and got the final three outs of the game. Illinois scored one in the ninth and had the tying run on with the winning run at the plate, but Lee forced a ground ball to end the game which evened up the series at 1-1.

With the series tied 1-1, Phil Schreiber took the mound and shut Illinois down for eight innings. Giving up only 5 hits and 1 earned run, Schreiber went a career long eight innings earning his 3rd win of the year and giving us our first conference series win of the year. We jumped out to a 3-0 in the first inning and that was all the run support Phil needed on the day.  McCool, Keppler, Blaser, and Sheppard all had a multi-hit game. We played very solid defense the whole weekend, and for our team to be successful down the road our defense is going to have to step up and carry this team. Our pitching was very good this weekend, which is why we earned our first series win of the year. If we continue to pitch and play defense like we did against Illinois we will be in great position at the end of the year.

The following Tuesday we played a very talented UW-Milwaukee team. Zach Robertson started for us going five innings giving up no runs. We got out to another fast start, plating three runs in the first inning. We seem to come out of the gates flying with our bats, but then the middle innings of the game we slow down. Getting early run support for your pitcher is a great thing, but as an offensive unit, you want to continue to add on in the middle innings to increase that lead. For whatever reason we jump out fast then don’t score for 5 or 6 innings. UW-M score three runs in the 6th inning to even the score up at 3-3. Then our offense woke up again in the 7th inning putting up five runs to take control of the game, eventually winning 9-3. Patrick Schatz threw two innings to get his first win of the season coming out of the bullpen. Overall a very solid game for us, all while building momentum heading into a conference series at Indiana.

The Friday night game of the series against Indiana got postponed due to rain. So we played a doubleheader on Saturday. Jarred Hippen got scratched from his start because he got fully warmed up Friday before the rain came so we moved our starting rotation up, and sent Nick Brown to the hill the first game on Saturday. Nick went 6 2/3 innings allowing only three runs on the day. Any one who has played at IU before knows that if you only allow 3 or 4 runs a game you have a great chance to win. With the field being on top of a hill and the wind blowing out almost everyday, low scoring games are hard to find with games at IU. But our offense was kept in check the whole game. We scattered 8 hits but only managed one run on the day. The final score of the game was 4-1.

With a quick turn around for the second game, we needed to forget about the earlier loss and try to even up the series. Phil Schreiber went to the hill going 6 2/3 inning giving up three runs. Our offense jumped out and scored one run in the first but we were then kept in check until the top of the 9th. We scored two runs to even up the score 3-3 sending the game into extra innings. IU had runners on 1st and 2nd with one out in the 10th and had a well placed ground ball up the middle. Our shortstop, Chett Zeise, glove flipped it to second to try to start the double play. Our second baseman Mike McQuillan bobbled the flip as the winning run crossed homeplate. I had the best view of the whole play as I was in center field. Zeise did all he could to keep the ball on the infiled to give ourselves a chance to turn the double play. But looking back on it the chances of turning a double play to win the game was highly unlikely. With the runner on second rounding thirdbase before the force out was even recorded, there was no chance to throw it home to try to cut down the winning run. It was just a well placed groundball and the winning run crossed homeplate as IU won 4-3.

The third game of the series was a sterotypical game at IU’s field. With 33 runs and 33 hits between the two teams, it was a shoot out from the first pitch. All in all, 12 pitchers were used between the two teams. On a day like that, it did not matter who was on the hill, the ball was going to be hit, and it was going to go along way. The final score ended up 24-12. It was actually a “close” game until the bottom of the 8th when IU put up 8 runs to blow the game out. If we could have limited them to one or two runs that inning we still could have managed a comeback. But 12 runs was too much for us to overcome, as we got swept for the first time in conference play this year.

We had two mid-week games the following week. One against Western Illinois and the other against Northern Illinois. The Western Illinois game will be a game that I will always remember. The game headed into the 10th inning with the score tied 5-5. Phil Keppler lead off the 10th with a double down the right field line. Kurt Lee pinch ran for him. I was intentionally walked and Zach McCool executed a sac bunt to move the runners to second and third. The next batter was Mike McQuillan. WIU tried to intentionally walk him but on the second pitch, the ball bounced off the catchers glove and deflected towards their dugout, and Kurt Lee scored the winning run. The Northern Illinois game was won, and lost, in the 6th inning. NIU put up ten runs to blow the game open. They went on to win the game 13-2. This might have been the wake up call we needed. After the game we had a meeting discussing any thoughs or feelings we had about our season up until that game. We got alot of things off our chest’s and I really believe that this game was our turning point in our season so far.

Excited to get back on the field, we traveled to Michigan for an important BigTen series. We really needed to come away with a series win or a sweep to keep up with the rest of the conference. Our task was a little more difficult than expected. With the forecast showing rain on Saturday and Sunday, they moved the games up so we played a double header on friday and one on Saturday. Any player or coach knows how difficult double header’s are. The first game of the DH Jarred Hippen was back to his original self. “Hip” threw a complete game allowing only 6 hits and one earned run. Whenever Michigan started to get something going, Hip shut the door. Our defense played awesome behind him making the routine plays to keep big innings from happening. Zach McCool lead the offense going 3-4 with an RBI. We scored a run in each of the first three innings to jump out to a 4-1 lead. Hip took care of the rest as we won the fisrt game of the DH 5-2.

The second game of the DH we won in the 5th inning of the game. We put up 4 runs to take a 5-2 lead. Nick Brown went 6 2/3 innings giving up two earned runs. Nick kept the Michigan hitters off balance all while getting key ground ball doubleplays in big situations. Kevin Lee picked up his 7th save of the year completing the DH sweep and the series win. Myself, McCool, and Durant each had a multi-hit game, with Durant collecting 4 RBI’s. We responded well to the NIU slaughter earlier in the week and looked to complete a series sweep on Saturday.

We came to the field on Saturday looking to get our first sweep of the year. Phil Schreiber battled through 5 innings giving up 6 runs, 2 of which were earned. The key to this game was a few errors we had in the field which lead to extra runs for Michigan. With four errors, we still gave ourselves an opportunity to get the win. Michigan had one big inning where they scored 4 runs, which proved to be the difference in the game. Phil Keppler lead the offense going 3-4 on the day, but that was not enough as we lost the final game of the series 7-5. Overall this was our most complete weekend of the year. Even though we did not come away with the sweep, we played our best baseball of the year at maybe the most important time of the year. This was a huge series for us to get back into the mix of the conference race. We need to build off this weekend heading into our two mid week games against Nebraska and Creighton, then into a very important series against Minnesota at home.

Stay tuned for more updates on future Hawkeye games!

Kurtis

After a disappointing spring trip, we had our first home series of the year against Western Illinois. We knew going into the weekend that we needed to get off to a good start at home because all good teams win on their own field. The first game came down to our final at-bat. With the score tied 3-3 in the ninth, we loaded the bases with an error, sac bunt, and two walks. Ryan Durant came up with the game on the line. In his previous at-bats Ryan struggled. But like all good hitters, he did not let his previous at-bats dictate his approach with the game on the line. He had a well placed, infield hit to plate the winning run to make the final score 4-3.

The second game, alike the first game, came down to our last at-bat. With each teams offense matching each other, we again loaded the bases and got a bases loaded walk to plate our first run in the 9th. Mike Corbeil came off the bench to pinch hit with the game on the line. Corbeil hit a line shot between second and third, that plated the tying and winning run. We found ourselves for the second game in a row, jumping around in the middle of the field celebrating our walk off victory. Walk off wins can really build momentum heading into the next day or even week, and we looked to get our first sweep of the year.

Sunday’s game we really showed up to play in all phases of the game. Phil Schreiber threw a career high, seven innings, to earn his second win of the year. Our offense pounded out 14 hits and 11 runs and our defense made enough plays behind Phil to walk away with our first sweep of the year, winning 11-2. We really needed to come out strong that weekend to build some confidence heading into our two midweek games and our first conference weekend at Michigan State.

With our first conference weekend just a few days away we had two midweek games against South Dakota State. They came into the series with offensive numbers that you have in video games, so we knew we were going to have our hands full. With the wind blowing out, the first game was a very offensive game.  Each team had 16 hits with a total of 22 runs crossing the plate. Unfourtunately we came up on the short end of the score, losing 12-10. SDSU had a solo homerun in the 8th to take the lead 10-9, followed with two more runs in the top half of the 9th to extend their lead to 12-9. We tried to rally in the 9th like we did against Western Illinois, but managed only one run in the bottom half, losing the game 12-10.

The final game of the series was another come from behind win for the Hawks. Zach Robertson started for us and put up career numbers. Robertson went a career high, seven innings, and struck out a career high ten batters. Zach really showed what he was capable of doing to hitters, keeping them off balance at the plate the whole game. Although he did not get the win, Zach pitched well enough to keep the game close and he gave us a chance to win it late like we did. Michael Jacobs earned the win, throwin one inning allowing one run on the night. We scored three runs in the bottom of the 8th to take a 6-5 lead. Kevin Lee got his fourth save of the season closing out the ninth that featured a web gem by Andrew Host in right field.

Winning 4 of our first 5 home games was huge for us. We needed to get off to a fast start at home, to gain some confidence heading into our conference schedule. Our first conference weekend was on the road against Michigan State. Heading into the weekend, the Spartans were on an 11 game winning streak and playing some pretty good ball. We knew going into the series we were going to have to elevate our play in order to take the first conference series. Friday night was a great ball game. Jarred Hippen got his first complete game of his career to get his second win of the year. Hippen really showed how far he has improved his mental approach to the game. He did not let mistakes behind him affect the way he was going to pitch. He has really matured as a pitcher and we look for him to continue his progression to being one of the best pitchers in the conference as the year goes on. Ryan Durant and Mike McQuillan lead our offense. Durant went 2-4 with two doubles and three RBI’s. McQuillan went 2-3 with an RBI and two runs scored. For our offense to be successful, we need to get runners on for those two hitters. If we do that we should have no problem’s putting up runs with them hitting with guys on base. We scored two runs in the top of the 8th to take the lead 5-3. Hippen shut the door from that point on to cap off his complete game.

Looking to build off of Friday night, we showed up to the park with the chance of taking our first conference series. The only problem was we did not show up ready to take it to them. We were very passive in all aspects of the game. As a team we were not where we needed to be to win the game. They completely took control of the game early and we had no answer for it. Their pitcher kept us off balance at the plate the entire time he was in. We had two errors that we could not over come in the field and ended up losing 16-2.

With how bad we played on Saturday, we still had a chance to take the series with a win on Sunday. The first three innings of the game it looked like the game could go either way. We scored a run in the first and third inning but MSU responded with runs in the second and third to tie the score 2-2 after three innings. MSU broke the game open in the fouth inning scoring 6 runs, followed with a 12 spot in the fifth. They added 6 more runs in their last two at bats to put up 26 runs against us. We needed to score a few touch downs in the top half of the 9th in order to mount a comeback. We scored 9 runs in the 9th but it was not enough to make the game close, we lost 26-11.

With our first conference weekend behind us we have a lot to improve on. The biggest thing for our team in order for us to be successful the rest of the year, we need to learn how to play on back to back days. We have fallen into this trend of playing good one game then taking the next couple games off, before waking up and playing good for one more game. That goes for all aspects of our team. When we pitch well, we don’t play defense. When we hit we don’t pitch. As a player it is very frustrating. With that said, we still have time to get back on track. Once we learn how to play on a daily basis I think we should start seeing the win’s stack up.

Our game against Western Illinois tonight (4/6) got canceled due to rain. We are going to make the game up on another day. We travel to Des Moines tomorrow to take on the Iowa Cubs (AAA minor league team of the Chicago Cubs). We are really looking forward to this opportunity to play against the pros. Some of these guys are going to be up with the big league team by the end of the year so it’s going to be a great learning experience for us. As a collegiate baseball player, getting the chance to play pros is an experience that I will never forget.

Stay tuned for results from the Iowa Cubs game and our first home conference weekend against Illinois.

GO HAWKS!!!

After getting swept against the Longhorns we were anxious to get back on the field. We continued our spring trip down to San Antonio to play UTSA. We were supposed to play them twice but the first game got cancelled due to rain. Nick Brown made his first start of the year. He battled through 5 2/3 innings with no where near his “A” stuff. Even though he did not have his good stuff, he gave us a chance to win and that is all you can ask for from your starters. Offensively we battled and had numerious balls that were hit hard right at the defense. If we could have gotten a few of those balls to fall we could have been on the winning side of the game. Taking nothing away from UTSA, they are a very solid team that came out to play in all aspects of the game. We lost the game 4-2 and continued our spring trip to play the University of Texas Pan-American.

We took one of three games against UTPA to finish our disappointing spring trip. The first game, Jared Hippen looked to follow up his great start against UT, with another quality start against Pan-American. He was not as sharp as he was against Texas when he started against UTPA. But he did give us five innings of work, and kept us in a position to win the game when he left. We had three errors that ended up costing us one or two runs which would have made the game within one run in the last inning. The first game of the series we fell 7-4.

The second game of the series we gave a very uninspired effort for the duration of the game. From the first pitch we were not locked in offensively, defensively or on the mound. We’re not a team that has enough talent to just show up and throw the ball around and expect to win. We are supposed to be the team that shows up, fights, scratch,es and claws our way to wins. That is the only way this team is going to be successful. The second game of this series we did not do one of those things. After the 13-2 loss something needed to change.

 At this point there was nothing the coaches could do or say to us that would make us play better, so I decided I would address the team. I basically told the guys that it was on us to turn the ship around to start getting after opponents. With a few choice words here and there, I think my message got across. The final game of the series, and last game of the trip, we came out of the gates flying. We scored five runs in the first inning with a huge grandslam by Phil Keppler. As we learned against the Longhorns, good teams find a way to keep adding onto the lead as the game goes on. We scored runs in the second, third, and fifth innings to add on to our big first inning. That was enough for Kenyon who has really thrown the ball well this entire year. He threw 6 strong innings and got his first win of the year as we won 10-3. If Zach continues to attack the zone like he has his last few outings, he will play a huge role for us as we look to win a BigTen Championship.

A very disappointing spring trip came to an end with us only winning one game. We need to continue to get better and start showing up to the field with a purpose on a daily basis. Like I said before, we can’t win on talent alone, we don’t have enough, we need to attack the opponents from the very first pitch and continue it for the full 9 innings. If we do that we should be pretty successful.

We have our home opener this weekend against Western Illinios. If we are going to be successful this season we need to take care of business at home. We have been below average at home the past couple years and you never want to lose at your own place. We need to show up to the field with a purpose this entire weekend so we can start getting our season turned around. We can not waste or give away any more games if we want to be considered a top team in the BigTen.

Stay tuned for this weekends results!

GO HAWKS!!

There was one series in particular at the beginning of the season that I couldn’t wait to come; and that was the series against the University of Texas. I believe they were rated number 3 in the nation at the time that we played them. They showed all the signs of a top three team in the country; poise, confidence, maturity, the ability to overcome adversity, and most of all the belief that they were going to win on any given night. Those different qualities were very apparent throughout the weekend.

 Friday night we were up against one of the best collegiate pitchers in the nation, Taylor Jungmann. He was by far the best pitcher I have ever faced, and possibly one of the best pitchers we will see all season. We scratched acorss one run in the first inning, but didn’t manage another throughout the next nine innings. Jungmann ended up striking out 17 while only walking one. We sent Jared Hippen to the mound and he matched Jungmann pitch for pitch throughout the game. Hippen had command of all three of his pitches, pitching to both sides of the plate very effectively, going 8 1/3, with 8 strike outs. I would venture to guess that that was Hippens best game he has pitched. He kept us in the game, shutting the door on any possible big innings for the Longhorns. The Longhorns only two runs came on two solo homeruns; one in the 8th, and the game winning walk-off in the 10th. We played pitch for pitch against the number 3 team in the nation and lost in extra innings, 2-1.

The Friday night game was a tough game to swollow; yet another game that we felt we played good enough to win, but came out on the wrong end. With a double header on Saturday, we knew that we could play with them it was now just a matter of executing and limiting our mistakes. The first game was a 7 inning game so we knew we had to jump on them early. We scored one run in the first, just like on Friday night, and again did not manage to score the rest of the game. Phil Schriber threw 5 1/3 innings, keeping us in the game even though he didn’t have his best stuff on that outing. We had two errors in the game, and when you play the number three team in the nation you can not afford to give them extra outs. The Longhorns won the game 3-1. This was another game that we were one or two clutch hits away from being on the winning side of the game.

The second game of the doubleheader was just like the first two games of the series….Close. We jumped out to a 2-0 lead after the top of the first, but the Longhorns got one back in the bottom half and three more in the bottom half of the second. We were yet again one or two clutch hits away from beating the number three team in the nation. The thing that really hurt us the most were the 3 errors that we committed. When playing top teams in the nation, you can maybe get away with one error or one inning that you leave a few runners on base, but when you can not find away to get one or two runners across in the middle innings when you have the chance to, or you make two or three errors,you will look back on those innings after the game and say “what if…” The final score of the game was 5-2.

The last game of the series we were outmatched from the very start. Texas scored a run in every inning except the 6th, with the final score ending up 18-0. If we could take away anything from that game it would be how Texas never let up after they got the lead; something that we could have done in the first three games of the series which could have made the outcome different in those games. One characteristic that is true of all “good” teams is the ability to win the one or two run games, along with never letting the gas up. I have no doubt in my mind that we will learn alot from these games against a highly regarded program like Texas, and we will be better from it.

I promised a few of the Longhorn fans that I would give them a “shout-out” in my next blog, so here it is guys!!! Myself and Ryan Durant would like to thank you guys for being great fans of the game and also for keeping things fun and entertaining throughout the weekend. I hope you guys enjoyed the signed BigTen baseball and the piece of gum that as tossed over the fence. I’d like to thank you guys for the big bag of bubble gum that you gave my brother to give to me, very thoughtful haha! It was nice interacting with you guys inbetween pitches, and inbetween the innings!

This past weekend we played Kansas in a four game series. We ended up going 1-3 on the weekend and headed back to Iowa City wondering what just happened. Throughout the year we have found our selves playing one good game, which was then followed up with a poor performance. This past weekend started off with an 8-1 loss. We faced the toughest starter we’ve seen this far in the season, and it really showed. We only managed 4 hits and were off balance at the plate the whole game. We had a short break to flush the last game and start the second game of the double header. Continuing with our pattern throughout the year, we followed up a poor performance with one of our better performances in all phases of the game. With 13 hits, 0 errors, and a quality start by Phil Schriber, we came out on the winning end of a 5-3 game that came down to the last at-bat. Our coaches challenged us after the game to follow this game up with another performance like it the last two games of the series. Needless to say that didn’t happen. We need to find a way to demand that same intensity, energy, and focus that all great teams have on a game to game basis so at the end of the year we aren’t asking ourselves, “what if…”

With this past weekend behind us, we are looking forward to a tough spring break trip down to Texas to play the University of Texas, University of Texas- San Antonio, and University of Texas-Pan American. At the end of this nine game roadtrip, it will be interesting to see how we bounce back from this past weekend. There is no time for us to sit and dwell on what has happened up until now, otherwise we’re going to be in for a long trip in Texas. With the quality of opponents that we are up against through these next nine games, we will again learn a little more about our team and how we react to both positive and negative situations that we come across.

Follow the Hawks at www.hawkeyesports.com for results on the upcoming games.

GO HAWKS!!