No. 15 Iowa upset by UW-Milwaukee in midweek setback

IOWA CITY -- The 15th-ranked Iowa baseball team fell short 4-3 against the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee on Wednesday at Duane Banks Field.

The Panthers (16-9, 5-6 Horizon) scored a run in the first inning off a Mitch Ghelfi single, bringing in Luke Meeteer. The pair plated another run in the fifth as Meeter belted a double to left field, advanced to third base on a sacrifice bunt and Ghelfi brought the junior in with a sacrifice fly to center field.

Iowa (21-8, 6-0 Big Ten) rallied back to tie the game in the bottom of the sixth. Joel Brooker scored on a Milwaukee error from Dan Potempa's two-out grounder to the shortstop. Nick Roscetti singled to the left side as Kris Goodman came in for the tying run.

Milwaukee would quickly regain its lead an inning later. Ghelfi drove in Derek Peake -- his third RBI of the day -- off a fielder's choice after Peake reached base safely on a walk. In the eighth, Peake made the score 4-2 with a two-out RBI single to right field.

Daniel Aaron Moriel drew a leadoff walk for the Hawkeyes to begin the bottom of the eighth. Moriel advanced to second on a wild pitch and scored off John Barrett's single, but the comeback would go for naught.

"There's no shame in losing to Milwaukee this year, they're a very good team," said Iowa head coach Rick Heller. "If you would have told me they were only going to give up eight hits, and we were going to lose, I would have been surprised by it."

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Nine pitchers took the hill for Iowa, but Tyler Radtke (2-1) was credited with the loss. Radtke gave up one run (earned) and walked two of his four batters faced despite throwing just 10 pitches in the seventh. Milwaukee sent nine pitchers to the mound, too. Justin Jaquish (3-2) picked up the victory in 1.1 innings of work.

The Hawkeyes mustered just six hits on the day, led by Roscetti (2-3) and Tyler Peyton (2-5). Eric Toole and Jake Mangler each had one hit apiece.

"Our pitchers did a nice job. Where we've been struggling in these midweek games is offensively at the plate," Heller said. "I don't know if there is an answer for that, we just need to go out and execute early. We had a couple opportunities to do that, once with runners at second and third with one out, and we didn't get a runner across. It ended up being a huge opportunity in the big scheme of things."

Iowa travels to Maryland for a Big Ten three-game series this weekend at No. 16 Maryland (23-8, 7-2). The Terrapins also suffered a midweek upset Wednesday against George Washington, dropping a 12-1 decision against the Colonials. First pitch for Friday's contest is slated at 5:30 p.m. Saturday's game is scheduled to start at 1 p.m. and Sunday at 11 a.m.