It doesn’t seem to matter where Illinois State is in the standings, how the’ve been playing lately or if Iowa is considered the favorite to win. When the Redbirds face off against Rick Heller’s Hawkeyes, they always seem to put together their best effort. On Tuesday evening, Iowa got everything they could handle from ISU trailing 5-4 in to the seventh inning. A Gable Mitchell single turned into a little league grand slam, and it was enough to carry the Hawkeyes to an 8-7 come from behind victory. In a season where the luck has been on the side of the opponent for the majority of the year, Rick Heller was happy to see his team catch a break for a change.
“It was just an okay performance in all areas,” said Heller. “Wasn’t great offensively, but we found a way to score enough…It got dicey (at the end), but we held on and hopefully we play better tomorrow.”
In the bottom of the seventh inning, it was the Iowa City native Gable Mitchell at the plate with bases loaded and two outs. With the Hawkeyes trailing 5-4, it was very much an at-bat that would be looked back on as one that helped decide the game.
After falling behind 3-0, ISU reliver Matthew Donnison battled back to a full count. Gable fouled off a couple of tough pitches and finally muscled the seventh pitch of the at-bat into left field for a single. Andy Nelson and Davis Cop scored to give Iowa the lead, but that’s when the fun began. Reese Moore started to head towards third base as the throw from the outfield sailed to the plate, but he was easily going to be out at third if the throw from home was a good one. Instead, ISU catcher Tyler Herron uncorked a wild throw that went down the left field line and into the corner. Reese scored and Gable Mitchell raced around the bases for a little league grand slam. 8-5 Iowa.
“He came at me early with the offspeed, but I knew he wasn’t capable of landing it more than once, so I just focused on the fastball and it had pretty good ride, so it made it a little bit tougher,” said Mitchell. “Found a way, so that’s the main thing…Reese took off for third and not sure if it was the greatest move, but it created some chaos, the ball got thrown down the line and I just saw there was nobody out there to get it, so I took off.”
“As I watching the ball roll, I said we haven’t seen that very often and it stemmed from a bad base running decision,” said Heller. “Catcher’s got a great arm and he let it fly and it went all the way to the wall. We’ll take the break that we got there.”
Although the game will be remembered for the chaos on that one play, Ben DeTaeye kept the Hawkeyes within reach, getting out of a jam in the top of the inning. After Marcus Morgan loaded the bases with three straight free bases, DeTaeye entered with just one out. The Redbirds were one ball in the gap from potentially breaking the game open. DeTaeye picked up his teammate, getting out of the jam unscathed, including a strikeout of leadoff hitter Luke Lawrence to end the threat.
“That was the ball game at that time. We had been in a couple of those jams earlier that could have been blowout innings, but guys stepped up. Had three guys step up in key bail out situations and pitch really well,” said Heller. “We just need some more guys to step up and pitch better.”
If you’ve watched an Iowa, Illinois State midweek game before, you knew the Redbirds were not going to go quietly. Auggie Rasmussen delivered a two-run home run in the top of the ninth to cut the Iowa lead to 8-7 with nobody out. All of the sudden, things were interesting. However, Ben DeTaeye finished the game the same way he started his outing. Luke Lawrence stepped to the plate with the tying run on first and two outs, but went down on strikes to end the game. DeTaeye recorded the final eight outs of the game for the Hawkeyes, including four strikeouts.
Iowa jumped on the board in the bottom of the second inning off the bat of Reese Moore. He launched an opposite field home run off the scoreboard in left field to make it 1-0. Moore finished the game with a pair of hits and three runs scored, but there wasn’t much success for the offense as a whole through five innings.
Illinois State starting pitcher Carter Monke was dialed in for the majority of his outing. He allowed four runs on six hits over 5.2 innings, including five strikeouts to two walks. The Hawkeyes finally got to him for a couple of runs in the sixth inning to knock him out of the game, but the Redbirds were still in front. He threw 47 of his 79 (59.5%) pitches for strikes.
“(Monke) just did a good job of mixing his breaking ball and his fastball. He left some over the middle that we let him get away with in the first inning and then after that, he was really living on the edges both in and out,” said Heller. “He did a good job of throwing his breaking ball over, stealing strikes with it early in the count and we didn’t get much off of him.”
Finally, in the sixth inning, the bats got to the Monke. Raider Tello led off the inning with an RBI double to spark things, while a dropped fly ball in right field helped the cause. Michael Seegers drove in a run with a hard hit single to left field and the three-run deficit was cut to just one heading into the late innings. From there, Iowa found a way to get the win.
On the mound for the Hawkeyes, there was some good and some not so good outings. Ganon Archer was fantastic in his start, tossing 2.0 scoreless innings, including three strikeouts. Anthony Watts came into a jam in the second inning and struck out three over 1.2 innings. Jack Young allowed an unearned run on one hit and a walk over 1.1 innings, but was solid in his outing, while Ben DeTaeye finished off the final 2.2 innings.
Up Next, the Hawkeyes will host the North Dakota State Bison on Wednesday afternoon at Duane Banks Field. First pitch is set for 4:05pm CT on BTN+.
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