IOWA CITY, Iowa -- After being shut down for the first seven innings, Indiana saw its bats come alive to plate five runs in the eighth inning and come away with a 5-3 victory against Iowa on Monday afternoon at Duane Banks Field.
Evan Bell pitched three innings of two-hit, scoreless relief to improve to 2-0 this season and Brad Hartong delivered the go-ahead two-run double in the decisive eighth inning. Earlier in the inning, Sam Travis came up with his second hit of the day to plate Casey Rodrigue from third base to tie the game.
Dating back to the end of the 2013 regular season, when Indiana won the last two regular-season games at Ohio State, the Hoosiers have now won eight consecutive conference road games.
Neither team was able to get the offense going at the start of the game, with the teams combining for four hits through the first five innings, but the Hawkeyes (16-12, 3-5 Big Ten) were able to scrape together a run in the fifth inning to take a 1-0 lead.
The Indiana half of the eighth inning began with a solid single to right field by Rodrigue that knocked Tyler Peyton from the game after a strong start for Iowa. He pitched seven innings and allowed one run on five hits with four strikeouts and did not get a decision. Rodrigue moved to second base on a passed ball and then on to third base thanks to a sharp single to left by Kyle Schwarber. That set the table for Travis and his ringing single back up the middle to tie the game at 1-1.
Scott Donley perfectly executed a sac bunt to move Schwarber and Travis into scoring position before Dustin DeMuth was walked intentionally ahead of Hartong. Hartong laced the first pitch he saw inside the third base bag and out of the reach of the Iowa third baseman, easily scoring two runs to make it a 3-1 Indiana lead. Another passed ball allowed DeMuth to score, followed by an RBI single by Will Nolden to make it a 5-1 edge for IU.
Iowa strung together two runs on four hits in the bottom of the ninth, but Scott Effross was able to close things out with a couple flyouts.
