After splitting their fist six games in Florida, Iowa baseball (3-4, 0-0 Big Ten) dropped the series opener vs. Washington State (1-8, 0-0 Mountain West) on Thursday by a score of 12-7 from La Moderna Field in Cleburne, TX, to start their four-game set against the Cougars.
Graduate left-hander Bryson Walker (0-1, 21.60 ERA) made his season debut in the starting role Thursday, where he pitched just 2/3 innings, allowing two earned runs on one hit, two walks, one hit-by-pitch, and one wild pitch in a sloppy 24-pitch outing.
The Hawkeyes used seven different pitchers over the remaining 7 1/3 innings, allowing nine more hits, ten earned runs, five walks, four batters hit-by-pitch, and two wild pitches while striking out nine on 146 combined pitches.
Offensively, Iowa had five batters tally multi-hit games. Gable Mitchell had three hits, while Miles Risley, Andy Nelson, Kooper Schulte, and Ben Wilmes each tallied two hits of their own. Caleb Wulf and Schulte each had two RBIs, while Wilmes, Jackson Beaman, and Max Burt drove home one run on the day.
“Our first try at a mid-week game didn’t go so well,” said head coach Rick Heller. “We didn’t pitch or play well. The offense fought hard and gave us a chance, but we just couldn’t get a shutdown inning after we scored. Too many free bases did us in. After scoring two in the top of the sixth we gave them five runs without a hit. You’re not going win when that happens.”
Despite the Hawkeyes ending the game outhitting the Cougars by a 16-10 margin, Iowa left 14 total runners stranded on the basepaths.
Iowa will look to respond on Friday as they send out Cade Obermueller (1-0, 0.87 ERA) to start game two of the four-game series against Washington State. Game time is scheduled from La Moderna Field for 2 p.m. CT and can be heard on the Hawkeyes Radio Network.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa baseball drops series opener vs Washington State