Iowa outlasts Columbus 13-12 in wild offensive slugfest

Thirteen runs were not enough to make this one comfortable. Iowa had to hang on through a furious ninth inning before Gabe Klobosits finally ended Columbus’ last surge with a strikeout, preserving a 13-12 win Friday night at Principal Park in a game that swung from near-collapse to escape in a matter of innings.

The Cubs were buried early when Columbus struck with back-to-back home runs to open the game, then added a two-out grand slam in the second to build a 6-0 lead. Iowa answered immediately with two runs in the second, then flipped the entire night in the fourth with a six-run inning that featured a bases-loaded walk to Jonathon Long, a two-run single from James Triantos and a three-run homer by Owen Miller for an 8-6 lead.

Iowa kept adding to the cushion in the fifth, when Justin Dean homered, Long drove in another run with a single and Kevin Alcantara added an RBI base hit. Eric Yang made it 11-6 with a homer in the sixth, and Miller delivered his second long ball of the night after Columbus scored in the eighth to stretch the lead to 13-7. In a game where every answer seemed to invite another counterpunch, Miller’s power was the line that kept Iowa ahead when the offense might have been expected to cool.

But Columbus was not finished. The Clippers mounted a relentless ninth-inning rally that loaded the bases and produced four quick runs before Iowa recorded an out, cutting the margin to one and putting the tying run into scoring position. Klobosits shut the door from there, and the Cubs walked away with a win that mattered far beyond the standings line. Iowa improved to 17-19, Columbus fell to 19-18, and after dropping 9-6 on May 5 and 4-2 on May 7, the Cubs answered by surviving one of the week’s most volatile games. It was the third series between the clubs this season, and after splitting a six-game set earlier, neither side has found much room for comfort in this matchup.