Iowa's lineup was shut down by Illinois freshman Aidan Flinn, who allowed just one hit over seven innings.
Iowa baseball dropped its series finale against Illinois, falling in a 6-2 decision at Duane Banks Field on Sunday afternoon.
The Hawkeyes had no answers for Illinois starting pitcher Aidan Flinn, recording just two hits. Four Fighting Illini runs early on was all it took for Flinn to shut down the Iowa lineup, and the Hawkeyes' dreams of a second consecutive Big Ten sweep slipped by the wayside.
Despite the loss, Iowa still took 2 of 3 games in this series and sits at 28-18 overall and 12-12 in Big Ten play with two conference series left in the regular season.
What Happened?
After getting pushed around all weekend, Illinois decided it would be the team to do the early talking. Iowa starter Logan Runde had no problem in the first, but he quickly allowed the first two batters to reach in the second.
Collin Jennings took full advantage of the opportunity and drilled his eighth home run of the season to deep center field to give the Fighting Illini an early 3-0 lead. The home run party trickled to the third, where Michael Farina crushed a leadoff shot to increase Illinois' lead to 4-0.
Iowa answered with a Jaylen Ziegler sacrifice fly in the home half of the third to make it 4-1, but that was all it could muster off Flinn. The freshman was mowing down the Hawkeyes at every juncture, allowing just one hit and striking out five over seven innings of work.
Iowa's pitching staff performed well outside of the early dingers that Runde allowed, but with no offensive support, their efforts were all for naught.
Jaixen Frost, who catapulted the Hawkeyes' 6-5 win on Saturday with a three-run homer, launched a solo shot to cut the Illinois lead down to 4-2 in the eighth, but the Illini avenged it by scoring two runs in the ninth inning.
Iowa went down in order in the bottom half of the ninth, and that was that.
Up Next
Iowa returns to action on Tuesday, May 5 for its final midweek contest of the season against St. Thomas. First pitch is set for 6:02 p.m. local time on Big Ten Plus.
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HawkeyeRoundtable publisher Brad Schultz has covered the Iowa Hawkeyes since 2023. To send him story ideas, scoops, or criticize his writing, reach him at bradschultz@roundtable.io