March 19, 2009

The University of Iowa baseball team will play its first home game of the 2009 season at Duane Banks Field Saturday at 1 p.m. in a doubleheader against Western Illinois. This will be the first game of five this season against the Leathernecks.

Western Illinois is currently 2-8 on the year, having split with No. 11 Oklahoma State Wednesday night. The Leathernecks have lost to No. 16 Oklahoma, No. 21 Arkansas, Missouri and No. 11 Oklahoma State. Iowa leads the series between the schools, 57-23-2.

The Black and Gold is currently 4-9 after upsetting the No. 25 Louisville at their home field last weekend in Louisville, KY and beating Tennessee-Martin 25-6 Wednesday.

In the Louisville victory, Iowa's pitching and defense stood out -- forcing and fielding 15 groundouts. The Louisville loss ended the team's nine-game home winning streak and was the first win against a ranked opponent for the Hawkeyes since last season (6-3 win at No. 5 Vanderbilt in March 2008). Against Tennessee-Martin, Iowa's bats came alive recording 25 hits, two off from the school record (27 in 1986). Five Hawkeye recorded homeruns and nine had multi-hit games. This was the highest scoring game since 1989. (W, 32-0 vs Quincy).