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