When redshirt sophomore righty Adam Mazur is dealing the way he was Friday afternoon, it doesn’t take much to put the Iowa Hawkeyes into the winner’s circle. Mazur surrendered just a pair of hits and struck out six in a complete-game shutout of the Nebraska Cornhuskers in the series opener.
Redshirt senior second baseman Izaya Fullard went opposite field and lifted a 3-2 pitch out of Hawks Field at Haymarket Park just past the right field fencing. That was all it took in a 1-0 series-opening win over the Huskers.
With the win, Iowa has now won for the ninth time in its past 10 games. Dating back a little further, the Hawkeyes have won 12 of their past 15 and 17 of their past 22 contests.
Mazur got into a bases-loaded jam in the third inning after a pair of walks to Nebraska’s Core Jackson and Cam Chick and a hit by pitch of the Huskers’ Garrett Anglim. The Woodbury, Minn., native made sure it was no big deal for the Hawkeyes as he struck out Griffin Everitt to thwart the threat.
Mazur and Iowa didn’t allow another Nebraska base runner to reach second base after the third inning. Jackson singled to right field for the Huskers’ first hit in the bottom of the fifth, but he was promptly caught stealing. Then, after allowing a seventh-inning single to Nebraska’s Brice Matthews, Mazur induced a Jackson fly out to end the inning.
Overall, Mazur induced 12 fly outs and eight groundouts to go along with his six strikeouts and the caught stealing. Mazur improves to 5-2 on the season and Iowa looks to capture the series over Nebraska on Saturday beginning at 2 p.m. CT.