To say the Iowa offense was on Thursday night would be a massive understatement. Pitching was thrown out the window on both sides as the Hawkeyes started off their final series of the regular season with a 30-16 victory.
Yes, you read that right. There were 46 combined runs in this contest. Everything started out wrong for the Hawkeyes. Despite ace Adam Mazur on the mound, the Hoosiers jumped out to a 2-0 lead with a home run on just the second batter of the game.
Iowa would trail 4-0 at the end of the first inning and the deficit snowballed to 13-2 after three innings. The game looked more like batting practice for the opposition.
Normally, this would be the end of the story. A deficit of 13-2 is typically the time you turn off the TV or radio, but, if you did last night, you truly missed something special. The Hawkeyes brought the deficit to within one run in the fourth inning thanks to some home runs of their own. Iowa would take the lead and then some, thanks in large part to redshirt sophomore Kyle Huckstorf’s big day.
Early in the contest, it seemed that Huckstorf’s big highlight was going to be a SportsCenter top-ten-worthy diving catch in centerfield, a nice little sparkle of magic in a blowout loss. Instead, Huckstorf just decided to break nearly every record available to him on the night.
Almost like he went into the settings and turned down the sliders, Huckstorf had a Big Ten record six hits, driving in a Big Ten record 12 runs. He homered three times in only two innings. It was a truly legendary performance.