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Hawkeyes ride hot offense to a 10-6 win over Illinois

On3 imageby: Kyle Huesmann6 hours agoHuesmannKyle

The Hawkeyes have gotten comfortable with playing from behind. It’s not the way the coaching staff plans it out and it’s certainly not ideal, but it’s the path they’ve taken as of late. In their Big Ten Tournament opener on Tuesday afternoon, Iowa fell behind in the first inning, but never faltered, riding their hot offense to a 10-6 win over Illinois. With the win, the Hawkeyes move to 33-21 overall and will play for a spot in the quarterfinals tomorrow.

“We don’t play the scoreboard. We play the game and we try to play the game one pitch at a time, the right way. If you do that, it always gives you a chance to come back,” said head coach Rick Heller. “We’ve been behind quite a bit here lately. Nebraska, fought back a couple times, didn’t get the win, but fought and then last weekend versus Purdue, we were behind in all three games and found a way to win all three games.”

“The more it happens, the more comfortable guys are with just playing the game and not pressing or trying too hard. Just pass the baton and find a way to get the next guy to bat and that’s the way it has to be. I wish we weren’t falling behind. It’d be a lot easier.”

Unfortunately for the coaching staff, it wasn’t easy. For his third consecutive start, Maddux Frese got into trouble early in his outing. The Illini plated four runs in the top of the first, including a two-run home run from Collin Jennings. For any team to make a deep run in this tournament, pitching has to be strong and efficient. A 25+ pitch first inning was not part of the pregame blueprint for a victory, but Frese rebounded, facing the minimum over the next two innings.

Although there was a full game of at-bats left for the Hawkeyes to comeback from their 4-0 deficit, an answer, sooner rather than later was needed to show that they were still in the game. In the bottom of the second, Illinois starter Regan Hall tallied consecutive strikeouts after giving up a leadoff single. On the verge of missing a chance with the leadoff man on, Ben Swails singled, while Max Burt followed with a two out, two-run double to get Iowa on the board. Jaylen Ziegler added an RBI single for three straight two out hits to cut it to a one run deficit.

“It was huge. Max Burt had a big two out hit that I really think gave us the confidence to finish that game knowing we could do it,” said Heller. “Really big hit by Max.”

Maddux Frese was only able to complete 4.0 innings, giving up five runs on eight hits, which changed the pitching plans. Rick Heller and the coaching staff didn’t want to go to Jaron Bleeker, but they felt like it was a necessary move to make. Bleeker ran into some trouble in his first inning of work, giving up a solo home run to AJ Putty and had to strand two runners on base to avoid further damage. After that, he was in complete control. Consecutive zeros in the sixth and seventh gave the offense a chance to get to work.

“I thought everything was working pretty well. I thought my stuff was really good and I was just filling it up and giving my defense a chance,” said Bleeker. “I knew if I could give us a chance, get some zeros, our offense would produce runs. I had no doubt that we were going to win it.”

The Illini went with Sam Mommer out of the bullpen in the bottom of the fifth with Iowa trailing 6-5 after a Brett White RBI single. Mommer got off to a strong start, retiring the first five batters he faced. Hitting coach Marty Sutherland had an adjustment for his guys when they went to the plate to face the heavy off speed pitcher. Go up to your at-bat thinking off speed and adjust from there.

“(Mommer) throws so much off speed, but he’s still got a really good fastball, so if you go up there sitting on a fastball, you might not get one,” said Heller. “He was carving us up and Marty Sutherland said you have to sit off speed, get something elevated and get your best swing off if we’re going to have a chance to do this. That’s what the guys did, and it was a really nice adjustment.”

Evidently, that advice worked out well. The Hawkeyes got to Mommer in the seventh inning and turned the game around. Three singles, a walk and a couple of sac flies from Jaixen Frost and Max Burt gave Iowa the lead. Then the big swing came from Joey Nerat. On a 1-1 pitch from Mommer, Nerat went down and got a curveball below the zone, depositing it midway up the seats in right-center field for a 405-foot three-run home run. The Hawkeyes plated five runs in the inning to take a 10-6 lead.

“I was just trying to drive runs in. Just trying to do some damage,” said Nerat. “We had runners on in scoring position and I just wanted to come through for my team. See something soft and drive a gap somehow and with that approach, luckily it worked out.”

With a four-run lead, Jaron Bleeker went out and closed the game down. After working his way through some traffic in the fifth, Bleeker retired 14 of the final 15 batters he faced, including striking out the side in the eighth. Back out for the ninth at 60 pitches, he set the Illini down 1-2-3 on eight pitches, striking out leadoff hitter Nick Groves to end the game.

“He was outstanding today. His confidence is growing and growing. I thought he had a really good fastball today; someone told me it was at 94 a few times and he was commanding his fastball,” said Heller. “He was hitting with all of his pitches, and the biggest thing was he just pounded the zone and worked ahead.”

“We only had two free bases on the day, and we didn’t walk a batter. You throw walks in with Maddux’s start and maybe we fall behind to the point where we can’t come back.”

Up Next: The Hawkeyes will face off against Michigan State on Wednesday with a spot in the quarterfinals on the line. First pitch is set for 5:03pm CT on the Big Ten Network.

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