Iowa Baseball (32-15, 21-6) avoided a series sweep against Washington (27-22, 15-9 Big Ten) with an 8-0 shutout win on Sunday at Husky Ballpark. After dropping the first two games of the series, Iowa bounced back in impressive fashion to cap off their weekend in Seattle.
Strong Pitching Leads Iowa to Victory
Iowa’s pitching staff delivered a dominant performance, holding Washington to just three hits. Reece Beuter (6-0) took the mound and threw seven scoreless innings. The right-hander allowed only three hits and struck out eight, matching his career high. With this performance, Beuter extended his scoreless innings streak to 13 innings. This was also his second seven-inning shutout of the season.
Iowa head coach Rick Heller expressed pride in the team’s resilience after two tough losses, praising their ability to come back strong in the final game.
Pitching Staff Completes Shutout
Brant Hogue and Justin Hackett came in to relieve Beuter and combined for three strikeouts, keeping Washington from threatening. The Huskies struggled to find any rhythm against the Hawkeyes’ pitching, finishing the game with a .103 batting average.
Beuter’s performance on the mound set the tone for the game, and the pitching staff as a whole kept Washington’s offense from gaining any momentum.
Offensive Bounce-Back After Tough Losses
The Hawkeyes were slow to start offensively but found their rhythm as the game went on. Iowa took a 1-0 lead in the fifth inning when Ben Wilmes hit a solo home run to left-center field. Wilmes now has seven homers on the season.
Iowa extended their lead to 2-0 in the sixth inning with a clutch pinch-hit RBI single by Caleb Wulf, scoring Blake Guerin from second base. Iowa added two more runs in each of the last three innings. Gable Mitchell, Reese Moore, and Jaixen Frost all contributed with key hits, including RBI singles and a double.
Mitchell Leads the Offense
Mitchell led the charge offensively for the Hawkeyes, finishing the day 3-for-6 with two doubles, an RBI, and a run scored. Despite the solid performance, Iowa stranded 12 runners on base, which left room for more scoring opportunities.
Iowa’s offense showed resilience after two low-scoring games to start the series, and the team will look to build on this momentum for the rest of the season.
Big Ten Standings Update
Iowa’s win on Sunday allowed them to extend their lead in the Big Ten standings over second-place UCLA. With the Bruins losing their series finale to USC, the Hawkeyes now lead by 2 1/2 games. However, UCLA has two Big Ten series remaining, while Iowa has only one. This makes Iowa’s upcoming three-game home series against Oregon (currently 3 1/2 games behind Iowa) from May 15-17 a crucial one for the Hawkeyes.
Looking Ahead
Next up for Iowa is a midweek game against UIC (16-29, 12-9 Missouri Valley) on Wednesday, May 7, at 6 p.m. CT in Chicago. The game will close out the home-and-home series between the two teams, with Iowa having won the first meeting 4-1 in March.
Iowa is looking to stay sharp and build on their performance as they head into the final stretch of the season.
