Iowa City, Iowa – The No. 19 Iowa Hawkeyes (30-11, 13-2 Big Ten) finished off a three-game sweep of the Nebraska baseball team (30-16, 6-9 Big Ten) on Sunday afternoon with a doubleheader sweep. The Hawkeyes walked off the Huskers, 3-2, in the 10th inning of game one and then took game two by a score of 5-1 in front of a sellout crowd of 2,506 at Duane Banks Field.
With nine games left on the Big Ten schedule for the Huskers, they sit in seventh place after Sunday.
The Hawkeyes started Tyler Peyton, who was scheduled to start Friday night’s series opener before it got postponed, and he went 8.1 innings to improve to 5-3 on the year. The junior right-hander allowed one run on eight hits, while walking none and striking out nine.
Muscatine, Iowa, native Derek Burkamper started for the Huskers, but didn’t make it out of the fifth inning. The sophomore gave up a five runs (four earned) on a career-high 10 hits. The right hander didn’t walk a batter and struck out four. Jake Meyers and Colton Howell combined to throw 3.2 scoreless innings down the stretch, but NU’s offense was unable to crack Peyton.
The Huskers mounted a threat in the top of the ninth, as they had the bases loaded with two outs and Elijah Dilday at the plate as the game-tying run, but Nick Hibbing got a strikeout to finish the win and pick up his fourth save of the season.
The Hawkeyes scored first in the second when they plated a run on three singles. They then pushed their lead to 2-0 in the third with an unearned run. Dan Potempa moved to third base on a passed ball and scored on a RBI groundout by Nick Roscetti.
Iowa picked up at least a run for the third straight inning in the fourth with two runs on one hit. Burkamper hit Eric Schench-Joblinske with one out and Eric Toole made it hurt with a RBI triple. Toole then scored on a RBI ground out from Jake Mangler to push UI’s lead to 4-0. Iowa extended its lead to 5-0 in the fourth with a run on three singles.
Nebraska broke into the scoring column in the sixth, starting with a leadoff single from Ryan Boldt. Peyton came back and retired two straight Huskers and was in position to keep his shutout through six, but Blake Headley delivered his 16th double of the season to drive in Boldt and cut UI’s lead to 5-1.
The Huskers went down in order in the seventh and eighth before threatening in the ninth.
Nebraska will be back in action Tuesday night for their final non-conference game of the season when they travel to TD Ameritrade Park for a 6:05 p.m. game against the Creighton Bluejays.