Hawkeyes edge Maryland in wild Big Ten Tournament opener

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — The tale of the tape advertised tons of pitching promise — two aces who sliced through the Big Ten with relative ease. Nick Gallagher carried Iowa’s staff all season as a weekend workhorse. Maryland’s Brian Shaffer was the conference’s pitcher of the year.

So naturally, offensive absurdity ensued.

And in a seesawing contest, the Hawkeyes landed the final blow.

Matt Hoeg delivered a game-winning sacrifice fly in the ninth inning that was just deep enough to score Tyler Cropley from third base, lifting Iowa to a 9-8 win in Thursday's Big Ten Tournament opener at Bart Kaufman Field. With the victory, the Hawkeyes (35-19) remain in the winners' bracket to face Nebraska Friday at 12:30 p.m. CDT.

"I didn't think it was deep enough," said Hoeg, whose clutch RBI came after Cropley walked and moved to third on Grant Judkins' single with one out.

"But it worked out." 

Thursday’s contest was originally scheduled for 7:30 p.m. CDT on Wednesday, but inclement weather and the Big Ten’s 10 p.m. curfew pushed the game back a day. Indiana’s elimination-game win over Michigan went 13 innings to start Thursday’s slate, meaning Iowa’s tournament opener didn’t begin until around 2:15 p.m. CDT — roughly 19 hours after its original start time.

And once it got going, the pop didn’t stop.

"I felt really good about how things were going," Iowa coach Rick Heller said, "especially since (Mason) McCoy, (Jake) Adams and (Robert) Neustrom were a combined 1-for-13 today. And we still found a way to win that ballgame. That's pretty impressive."  

The two teams combined for 27 hits and six homers as both aces faltered in their worst starts of the season. Hoeg’s sacrifice fly capped a back-and-forth affair that saw Iowa jump out to a five-run advantage, only to see it evaporate into a 7-6 Maryland lead after four innings.

Solo homers from Neustrom in the fifth and Chris Whelan (3-for-4, RBI) in the sixth handed Iowa a brief 8-7 edge, but the Terrapins quickly countered on Marty Costes' seventh-inning solo blast. 

The Hawkeyes raced to a 6-1 cushion against Shaffer with four runs in the second and two in third, tattooing the Maryland right-hander with a slew of extra-base hits. Shaffer yielded eight runs (seven earned) and 10 hits over 6 1/3 innings, raising his season ERA by nearly an entire run (1.67 to 2.63).

Iowa's offensive outburst marked the most runs Shaffer has yielded in any outing this year. Only twice in his 14 starts had he even surrendered three earned runs.

The Hawkeyes reached that benchmark before six outs were recorded. 

"(Getting to Shaffer early) was definitely big," Hoeg said. "He settled in a little bit toward the middle, but it was huge to get up there and score a bunch of runs early on such a great pitcher."  

Gallagher, though, wasn’t any better. Over six-plus frames, Maryland tagged the right-hander for 14 hits and eight runs — both season highs. Heller said Gallagher's fastball velocity was down from its usual low-to-mid 90s range, but an emphatic bullpen boost kept Iowa stride for stride.

Relievers Kyle Shimp and Josh Martsching yielded one hit over the final three innings — with Martsching working out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam in the eighth, then tossing a perfect ninth for his fourth win.

"For me, I want to be in that situation," said Martsching, who punched out Costes and got Nick Dunn to pop out to end the eighth. "I'd rather have the ball in my hands than anyone else's hands. You've' just got to trust your defense, and it's a little luck sometimes getting out of them. 

"But we got out of it."   

Had the Hawkeyes stumbled, they would've played a second game roughly 40 minutes after the Maryland contest. Avoiding that scenario keeps Iowa's bullpen fairly fresh and creates a more feasible road map than having to claw out of the loser's bracket.

Iowa will have one less day of rest than Nebraska, which was off Thursday after Wednesday's reshuffling. But Iowa’s gutty win should inject some additional confidence.

"Proud of our guys," Heller said, "Great game."

Dargan Southard covers preps, recruiting, Iowa and UNI athletics for the Iowa City Press-Citizen, The Des Moines Register and HawkCentral.com. Email him at msouthard@gannett.com or follow him on Twitter at @Dargan_Southard.