In a game where the University of Iowa baseball team didn’t fan 10 or more batters for the first time this season, Wichita State rallied from a 4-0 deficit to hand the Hawks a 6-4 defeat on Friday afternoon in the opening game of the 2022 Frisco College Baseball Classic at Riders Field. 

The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first courtesy of a Keaton Anthony RBI double and a Sam Hojnar sacrifice fly.  Iowa doubled its advantage in the third when Peyton Williams connected on a solo home run – a 407-foot blast to right center – and on doubles from Anthony and Brayden Frazier.

Redshirt sophomore Adam Mazur was cruising, tossing 5 1/3 innings of no-hit ball before the Shockers started to rally.  Wichita State strung together four straight singles to plate its first run in the sixth before Payton Tolle lifted a ball to left field that carried to the wall.

Frazier had a beat on the ball, jumped and collided with the wall, jarring the ball loose.  The result was a bases-clearing double, one that tied the game at four. 

Wichita State took the lead in the eighth when Brock Rodden tripled to start the inning – a gapper that caromed off Anthony’s glove while in pursuit.  Rodden scored on Sawyre Thornhill’s RBI single through the right side with the infield in and Chuck Ingram’s RBI single pushed the lead to 6-4.

Iowa threatened in the ninth with Will Mulflur and Kyle Huckstorf reaching on one-out singles.  Shocker closer Connor Holden plunked Williams to load the bases before getting Anthony to fly out to center field to end the game. 

Mazur allowed four runs on five hits over 5 2/3 innings with three strikeouts.  The righthander retired 15 straight batters from the first to fifth innings.  Redshirt sophomore Will Christophersen (0-1) took the loss, allowing two runs on four hits over two innings.

Iowa finished with 11 hits in the game with four Hawkeyes – Michael Seegers, Williams, Anthony and Huckstorf — tallying multi-hit games.