April 5, 2006
Box Score
NORMAL, Ill. -
Season bragging rights were at stake in Wednesday's baseball match-up between the Illinois State Redbirds and the Iowa Hawkeyes, as the outcome would break the 1-1 series tie between the two teams in 2006. After a five-run third inning, the Redbirds (9-17) cruised to a 5-2 victory at Redbird Field over the Hawkeyes (11-12) and won the season series 2-1.
Junior Luke Baughman (2-2) picked up his second victory of the season against Iowa, just a week after earning the decision against the Hawkeyes in Iowa City, Iowa. The Normal, Ill., native threw four innings while giving up one earned run on three hits on Wednesday. Earning the save was junior college transfer Mike Hlavacek, who picked up his fourth save of the year after working a scoreless ninth inning. Chase Stephens (1-1) suffered the loss for the Hawkeyes in 2.1 innings of work, giving up five runs of which only one was earned.
The Redbirds' five runs in the bottom of the third inning were enough to carry them to the victory over the Hawkeyes. Kevin Dubler led off the inning with a single to left field. Following a pop out by Matt Bolt, Blake Schoonover and Ryan Anetsberger were hit by Stephens in consecutive at-bats to load the bases with just one out.
Jesse Griswold was due up next and hit a grounder to Iowa third baseman Kevin Hoef, but an errant throw allowed Griswold to advance to second base and pushed Dubler and Schoonover across the plate to make the score 2-0. The bases were loaded once again after Kyle O'Brien walked and with two outs, Nick Crist lined a two-run single into right field scoring Anetsberger and Griswold to extend the lead to 4-0. Mike Tokarski's RBI single capped off the five run inning and gave Baughman a five run cushion.
The Iowa bats were silent until the top of the fifth inning when the Hawkeyes scored their only two runs of the evening. With the bases loaded and no outs, Brett Geelan drew a walk off reliever Ian Berger to push Ryan Gryzwa across home plate and cut into the lead 5-1. Following a Dusty Napoleon pop out, Wes Freie grounded out to first base which allowed Nathan Price to score from third base and bring the score to 5-2.
However, the Hawkeyes could not mount any kind of offensive attack after that and the Redbird pitchers brought the game to a close. Kris Jenkins led the Redbirds with two hits against Iowa, with Crist chipping in two RBI. Jason White paced the Hawkeyes with two hits and Gryzwa added a hit in addition to scoring a run.
The `Birds now travel to Omaha , Neb., to take the nationally ranked Creighton Bluejays for a three-game weekend Missouri Valley Conference series beginning on Friday at 3 p.m. Creighton, the No. 21 ranked team in the country according to Baseball America, lost to No. 6 Nebraska 6-4 in an in-state rivalry game on Tuesday.
