March 28, 2007
NORMAL, Ill. -
Tuesday's baseball game between Illinois State and Iowa was the first of two this season between the two squads, and the Hawkeyes (10-5) took a 1-0 advantage in the series as they put 15 runs on the board and rolled to a 15-3 win over the Redbirds (9-13) in a six-inning, rain shortened game at Redbird Field.
ISU starter Dan Sorce (1-3) suffered the loss, after giving up four earned runs on three hits in two innings of work on the mound. Iowa used a combination of five pitchers in the six-inning affair, but Casey O'Rourke (1-0) earned the win as he was the pitcher of record after the fifth inning when the game became official.
A two-run home run in the top of the first inning by Dusty Napoleon gave Iowa an early 2-0 lead. The Hawkeyes would then proceed to tack on two more runs in the top of the second inning to widen the lead to 4-0. However, Iowa blew the game open in the third inning with six runs on four hits to extend the lead to 10-0. All of those runs were credited to ISU reliever Jake Wielebnicki, who gave up RBI singles to Ben Geelan and Travis Sweet and walked in two runners with the bases loaded in his one inning pitched.
After Iowa tacked on its 11th run of the game in the top of the fourth inning, ISU answered back with three runs to cut into the Iowa lead at 11-3. With the bases loaded and two outs, Kevin Konsler laced a single into left field and brought in Ryan Anetsberger from third base and Jim Jacquot from second base for the first two runs of the game for the `Birds. Jesse Griswold then scored from third base on a wild pitch from Iowa reliever Kyle Heim for the third and final run of the inning.
That would be as close as the Redbirds would come, however, as Iowa tacked on four more runs in the top half of the sixth inning to balloon the lead to 15-3. That is when the rain began to fall harder and the game was called. Anetsberger extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a 1-for-3 performance at the plate and Konsler chipped in with two RBI for ISU. Napoleon led the way for Iowa with three hits and six RBI, while Jason White scored three runs and walked four times.
ISU returns to action this weekend against Missouri State in its second Missouri Valley Conference series of the season. The three-game series will begin on Friday at 3 p.m. at Redbird Field.
