In Iowa City in search of wins to clinch a spot in the Big Ten Tournament, Indiana led 13-2 after three innings.
But Iowa would cross the plate 28 more times over the next five innings to completely flip the script and deliver a crushing 30-16 defeat to the Hoosiers.
Indiana (25-28, 10-12 B1G) built its 3-2 lead with four in the first, five in the second and four in the third inning, as Iowa (31-17, 15-7 B1G) got two in the first.
But a 10-run fourth for the Hawkeyes was followed by one run for the Hoosiers in the fifth. Iowa then scored four in the fifth and three in the sixth to give them the lead. Indiana scored one in the seventh and one in the eighth, however, Iowa added three in the sixth, six in the seventh and five in the eighth to cap the scoring.
It was a solid night for several Hoosiers at the plate.
Five posted multi-hit games led by four-hit games from junior Hunter Jessee and senior Phillip Glasser. Freshmen Carter Mathison and Josh Pyne posted three-hit games and redshirt-junior Matthew Ellis had two hits. Senior Peter Serruto was on base three times with a base hit and two walks.
Mathison hit his 17th home run of the season as part of his three-hit day, which also included his 10th double. He added one walk and tied for team high with four RBIs and three runs scored. It was the 10th home run in Big Ten play for Mathison to make him the fifth Hoosier in program history to reach double-digit home runs in conference-only games.
With the four RBIs for Mathison, he joins Pyne in the freshman 50-RBI club to make the first IU rookies to plate 50 RBIs in the same season in program history.
Pyne doubled for the 18th time in 2022 and added his sixth home run to drive in four runs. He also scored three times. Glasser scored three times and drove in two RBIs, which came on his third home run of the season. Jessee had two RBIs, hit his fifth home run of the season and scored three runs.
Of course it was a miserable night for the Hoosier pitching staff.
Seven IU pitchers saw time on the mound, as Luke Hayden (4-1) took the loss with seven runs allowed – just one earned – on four hits over 1 2/3 innings.
Overall Indiana faced 67 Iowa batters and allowed 23 hits, walked 12 and hit five with pitches. In the field IU added to the pain with four errors.
Kyle Huckstrof paced the offense for Iowa with a 6-for-7 night at the plate, four runs scored and 12 RBIs, while Sam Petersen drove in five RBIs. Duncan Davitt (4-1) picked up the win with 4 1/3 innings of two-run work out of the bullpen.
Despite the loss, Indiana still has a good chance to reach the eight-team Big Ten Tournament in Omaha next week. One win in their final two regular season contests at Iowa will likely be enough to qualify.
But needless to say, they’ll need better pitching.
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