Four Takeaways from the Nebraska series with Coach Rick Heller

It was quite the whirlwind of a week for Rick Heller and the Iowa Baseball team. They started off their week with shocking and embarassing 14-3 run-rule loss at Illinois-Chicago. That set up a must win game against Bradley on Wednesday, as a loss would have sent their RPI spiraling into the 70’s. They rebounded off the UIC loss and won 6-1 behind a solid effort from the pitching staff.

That set up a huge three-game series against border rival Nebraska. The Hawkeyes dominated from start to finish in the series and earned the sweep. Iowa outscored the Huskers 25-7 on the weekend, including 14-1 over the last two games. The sweep catapulted the Hawkeyes into the top 45 in the RPI. A spot that would have them in an NCAA Regional if the season ended today.

“I was really excited and proud of our guys in the effort they gave all three games in a series, where we needed to do something like that to be able to get back into the (Big Ten) race,” said head coach Rick Heller. “Three really complete games.”

The series sweep moves Iowa to 29-10 on the season and into a tie for fourth in the Big Ten standings with a 7-5 record. With that, we take a look at the biggest takeaways from the Hawkeyes series against the Cornhuskers and get Heller’s thoughts on the weekend.

1. The Hawkeyes knocked Nebraska off of their pitching plan on all three days

The Nebraska pitching staff ranked amongst the top three in the Big Ten in ERA, opponent batting average, walks issued and hits allowed coming in this past weekend’s series against the Hawkeyes. It appeared that it would be a tough test for the Iowa offense. However, they executed the scouting report to perfection on all three days and forced the Huskers to go off script with their bullpen.

“The challenge that Marty Sutherland gave our guys this week was that, we’ve got to put the same focus and same commitment into executing the plan against the Saturday and Sunday guys as we do the Friday guy,” said Heller. “Seems like there’s been some weekends where we executed the plan outstanding on Friday and it just kind of fell off on Saturday and the same thing on Sunday.”

The Huskers Friday starter, Emmett Olson, allowed just one run on four hits over 7.0 innings against the Hawkeyes last season. In the series opener, Olson made it through just 2.1 innings. The Iowa offense racked up five runs on six hits and forced Nebraska to go into their bullpen early in the series.

“The best thing to happen for us was getting Olson out early, especially since he threw extremely well against us last year,” said Heller. “Our guys being disciplined and not chasing and getting the pitch count up, but also being able to make him pay when he missed out over the plate was really big in that game.”

“I think that kind of set the tone for the weekend and then the guys really went and took Marty’s message to heart and they just did a really good job of executing the plan all weekend long.”

On Saturday, the Hawkeyes faced another familiar face. Jace Kaminska faced Iowa when he was with Wichita State, but lasted just 3.0 innings in game two. He threw 65 pitches over 3.0 innings and allowed four runs on four hits.

In the series finale, Will Walsh took the mound for the Huskers. In the 23.2 innings prior to Sunday, Walsh had issued just four walks and allowed just eight earned runs. The Iowa offense scored three runs on three hits and three walks. Walsh exited the game after 1.1 innings and 36 pitches.

The Iowa starters combined for 17.0 innings on the weekend, while Nebraska got just 6.2 innings out of their three starters. As a staff, the Huskers were allowing just 4.7 runs, 7.4 hits and 4.6 walks/hbp per game. The Hawkeyes averaged 8.3 runs, 9.7 hits and 9.0 walks/hbp over the three-game series.

2. The Hawkeye pitching staff was lights out

While the Cornhuskers had their fair share of struggles on the mound, the Iowa pitching staff was nearly lights out. Nebraska scored four runs on two hits and seven walks against Brody Brecht, but mustered just three runs over the last 22 innings of the weekend. Jack Whitlock settled things down after Brecht’s early exit. He gave 2.1 innings out of the bullpen and retired seven of the ten batters he faced, including five strikeouts.

“A lot of credit needs to go to Jack Whitlock. A guy that had to wait his turn, didn’t get a lot of opportunities early in the year,” said Heller. “Coming in and pitching really well after Brody went out was big in the series and Jack does a great job of pounding the zone for strikes.”

The rest of the weekend was about the starts given by Marcus Morgan and Ty Langenberg. Morgan was in control from the start on Saturday and tossed 6.0 scoreless innings. He retired 18 of the 22 batters he faced, including five strikeouts to one walk.

In the finale, Ty Langenberg shook off a home run and a walk in the first two at-bats of the game. He rebounded to go 7.0 innings with nine strikeouts and two walks. He retired 21 of his final 24 batters faced.

“They just hit with their pitches and they hit early in the count, so that we could dictate what we wanted to do,” said Heller. “That’s the key to pitching. Not having to throw predictable pitches in predictable counts.”

“Marcus has been steadily getting better each time out and that’s great to see. Then Ty put it together, where he was able to hit with four pitches and when he can do that, it’s really tough.”

Coming into the weekend, the Nebraska offense was averaging 4.4 extra base hits per game and were second in the Big Ten with 62 home runs. The Huskers mustered just two extra base hits and zero home runs. Their big three home runs hitters were just 8/30 (.267) on the weekend.

“Everybody just pounded the strike zone and we got into counts where we could dictate what we wanted to do and pitch to scouting reports as opposed to some weekends where basically you’re just trying to find a pitch that you can throw for a strike and then obviously you’re most susceptible to get hit.”

3. The entire Iowa batting lineup contributed

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that a balanced batting lineup that doesn’t rely on only a couple of hitters driving in runs will be a successful one. The Iowa offense got contributions from one through nine in the lineup and it led to a productive weekend.

“That was the story of our offense on the weekend and why we were able to score runs and win those games. We got production up and down the lineup,” said Heller. “The real positive thing was that some of those guys that had been struggling, to see them put it behind them and just go out and try to find a way to help the team, that was awesome to see.”

Lineup Production Breakdown

1-3: 12 hits and 12 walks/hit by pitch and 8 RBI’s

4-6: 8 hits and 9 walks/hit by pitches and 8 RBI’s

7-9: 9 hits and 6 walks/hit by pitches and 7 RBI’s

After racking up four hits on Friday, the Nebraska pitching staff worked around Keaton Anthony the rest of the weekend. In the final two days of the series, the Hawkeyes hit leader was 0/6, but the rest of the offense put up 14 runs on 20 hits.

4. Sweeping the Huskers dramatically changed the Hawkeyes Big Ten and NCAA Tournament standing

As previously mentioned, the Hawkeyes had their backs up against the wall on Wednesday when they took the field to face Bradley. Their loss the day before against Illinois-Chicago dropped them to #58 in the RPI. A loss to the Braves would have dropped them into the 70’s, well behind the #55 mark that got Grand Canyon in as the final at-large team last season.

Five days later and the Hawkeyes had improved their RPI from #58 to #43 with four straight wins. They also climbed from seventh to fourth in the Big Ten standings. All the sudden, Iowa had drastically improved their standing in the Big Ten and NCAA Tournament picture.

“I just felt great because that’s what we were all trying to do. String some good games together where we could get back on track and hopefully get on a roll and get ourselves back into a situation where all the goals that we have are attainable.”

Iowa now sits just 2 games out of the first place in the Big Ten with four weeks to play. If the Hawkeyes can earn series wins against Penn State, Ohio State and Michigan State, while finishing up with a sweep against last place Northwestern, they will be in line to finish in the top three of the standings. They will also be sitting in a good spot with their NCAA Tournament hopes.

“Those things can happen and we just have to continue to play well and take care of ourselves,” said Heller.

Up next for the Hawkeyes…

Iowa will travel to State College this weekend for a three-game series against a peaking Penn State squad. The Nittany Lions have won nine of their last 11 games, including a three-game sweep of Ohio State this past weekend. The Hawkeyes split a pair of games with Penn State in Omaha at the Big Ten Tournament last season.

“They’re a scary team to play. They have a bunch of older hitters and some really good arms on the mound,” said Heller. “I said before the season that they could be a team that was a surprise in the Big Ten…They’re kind of hitting their stride and we’ve all noticed that. I think they’re a really good team.”

The Hawkeyes will face Upper Iowa in a midweek matchup later today. First pitch is set for 4:00pm on BTN+. The series opener against Penn State on Friday is set for a 4:00pm first pitch on the Big Ten Network.

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