Tag: Iowa baseball

Iowa Hawkeyes earn No. 3 seed in Baseball America’s latest 2022 NCAA Tournament field

In Baseball America’s latest projection for the 2022 NCAA baseball tournament field, the Hawkeyes earned a No. 3 seed.

With selection Monday for the 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament less than three weeks away, Iowa is squarely on the bubble. At least one projection paints an optimistic picture.

Baseball America’s Teddy Cahill has the Hawkeyes as his second-to-last team in his projected field of 64. Iowa checks in as the No. 63 team according to Cahill’s projection and would earn the No. 3 seed in the South Bend, Ind., regional.

Naturally, Notre Dame would host that regional as the No. 10 overall seed. Joining the Fighting Irish and Hawkeyes in Cahill’s projected South Bend Regional are No. 2 seed Texas State and No. 4 seed Ball State.

At this point, the Hawkeyes would gladly sign up in an NCAA Tournament regional anywhere. In D1Baseball’s latest field of 64 projection, Iowa was noticeably absent.

In fact, the Hawkeyes weren’t even among the D1Baseball staff’s first four out. Instead, D1Baseball’s last four in included San Diego, Louisiana Tech, Louisiana and North Caroline and its first four out were UTSA, Clemson, Pittsburgh and Old Dominion.

Wake Forest, UCLA and Louisiana Tech joined Iowa as the last four in according to Baseball America and Pittsburgh, Louisiana, North Carolina and Kentucky were the first four out. The next four out according to Baseball America included Kennesaw State, Texas-San Antonio, Alabama and Clemson.

Maryland and Rutgers were the only other Big Ten teams that made the cut in either of the two 2022 NCAA Baseball Tournament projections. Maryland was the No. 12 overall seed according to D1Baseball and the No. 15 overall seed according to Baseball America. Meanwhile, Rutgers was a No. 3 seed in both projections.

With the Hawkeyes’ RPI at No. 64 entering this weekend’s slate against Michigan State, it’s likely that Iowa needs to win out over the remainder of the regular season in order to keep an at-large berth in play. Iowa’s remaining regular season opponents can really only hurt the Hawkeyes’ RPI standing.

Michigan State checks in as the No. 160 team in the RPI, Illinois Chicago is No. 177 and Indiana is No. 103.

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Iowa versus Michigan State: How to watch, listen, stream Hawkeye baseball against the Spartans

Iowa heads to East Lansing, Mich., for a pivotal three-game series. Here’s how to watch, listen and stream the Hawks against the Spartans.

After securing a fourth consecutive Big Ten series win with a 9-1 rubber game victory over Purdue, Iowa (28-16, 12-6 Big Ten) hits the road for East Lansing, Mich., for a three-game series against Michigan State.

With the Hawkeyes sitting at No. 64 in the RPI and tied for third in the Big Ten standings with a 12-6 mark in league play, Iowa needs to play well in this three-game series against the Spartans in order to enhance its case for an at-large bid into an NCAA Regional.

In Iowa’s series-clinching win over the Boilermakers, sophomore Ty Langenberg registered a career-long seven innings start where he surrendered just one run and struck out seven.

“We gave a mature, professional effort today. After a tough day yesterday, we came out with a lot of energy. We were really dialed in against a good team and we needed a good start. Ty Langenberg delivered with that; he was solid today,” Iowa head baseball coach Rick Heller said after capturing the series over Purdue.

After recording 12 strikeouts in the Mother’s Day win, Iowa ran its strikeout total to 507 to set a single-season program record. Redshirt freshman Keaton Anthony hit his 10th home run of the season and finished with a pair of RBIs. Sophomore Cade Moss added two RBIs as well.

Meanwhile, Michigan State (22-25, 6-12 Big Ten) was swept by Penn State. A pair of games originally scheduled for Friday and Saturday were postponed. The Spartans played a Sunday doubleheader, losing both against Penn State by scores of, 15-3, and, 10-4. Then, Michigan State dropped the Monday contest against the Nittany Lions, 10-9, in 11 innings.

The Spartans split their midweek games at Notre Dame and at Western Michigan, losing to the Fighting Irish, 15-6, before topping the Broncos, 3-1.

Here’s how to watch, listen and stream the Hawkeyes’ series against Michigan State.

Iowa rocks Purdue, 9-1, captures fourth straight Big Ten series win

Iowa used a five-run fifth inning to rock Purdue, 9-1, on Sunday. As a result, the Hawkeyes have now won four consecutive Big Ten series.

A Saturday hiccup couldn’t stop Iowa from unleashing on Purdue on Sunday. The Hawkeyes scored two runs in the first, two more in the third and then used a five-run fifth inning to race away from the Boilermakers en route to a 9-1 rubber game win.

The series win is Iowa’s fourth consecutive Big Ten series win and the Hawkeyes’ sixth series win over the past seven weekends. Iowa improved to 28-16 overall and 12-6 in Big Ten play with a pair of weeks remaining in the regular season.

Sophomore right-hander Ty Langenberg struck out seven Purdue batters over a career-long seven innings of work to pick up the Mother’s Day win from Duane Banks Field. The Urbandale, Iowa, native allowed just five hits and surrendered only the lone walk. In the process, Langenberg improved to 5-1 on the season.

It was a great day for the Iowa pitching staff in general. Redshirt junior righty Duncan Davitt came on in relief and pitched a pair of scoreless innings and struck out five of the final six Boilermaker batters. With the Hawkeye pitchers 12 strikeouts on the day, Iowa ran its season total to 507 to set a new single-season program record. The previous mark was 499 strikeouts by the 2018 squad.

Redshirt freshman Keaton Anthony got the scoring started for Iowa in the first with a two-run homer after Purdue plunked Iowa’s Peyton Williams. Then, in the third, redshirt junior Brendan Sher added a two-run double into left center to plate Anthony and redshirt senior Izaya Fullard.

The Hawkeyes officially broke things open in the fifth. Sher drew a bases-loaded walk and Williams scored on a wild pitch to give Iowa a 6-0 lead. Freshman Ben Wilmes followed with a two-run single and sophomore Cade Moss’ single to right made it 9-0 Hawkeyes.

WATCH: Caitlin Clark, Monika Czinano toss out first pitches for Iowa baseball

Iowa women’s basketball stars Caitlin Clark and Monika Czinano threw out the honorary first pitches for Hawkeye baseball with mixed results.

Around Iowa City, there are few bigger stars than those on the Iowa women’s basketball team. The Hawkeyes electrified the fan base with a 24-8 season that included a Big Ten regular season co-championship and the Big Ten Tournament crown outright.

How the women’s basketball team captured the hearts of Iowa City is perhaps best illustrated by the Carver-Hawkeye Arena attendance numbers during the NCAA Tournament. Iowa fans packed down Carver-Hawkeye Arena to the tune of back-to-back sellouts of 14,382.

Iowa’s season ended in a shocking second-round upset loss against 10th-seeded Creighton, 64-62. With star point guard Caitlin Clark and star forward Monika Czinano back in the fold for the 2022-23 women’s basketball season, optimism is high that the Hawkeyes can enjoy a deeper NCAA Tournament run in 2023.

Given their star status, it makes sense why Clark and Czinano were natural candidates to throw out the honorary first pitches ahead of Iowa baseball’s rubber game versus Purdue. To be kind, the results from Clark and Czinano were mixed.

HawkeyeReport’s Kyle Huesmann may be on to something here. After Czinano airmailed the pitch to home plate, it might be time to think about better ways to use that arm strength somewhere other than on the pitcher’s mound. Her toss to home plate had to make Harry Doyle from Major League smile. It truly was “just a bit outside.”

Meanwhile, Clark delivered a pretty good pitch to home plate and showcased some velocity as well.

In all seriousness, it was great to see both Clark and Czinano out to support Iowa baseball. The pair of stars are two of the biggest reasons why Iowa will be one of the favorites to repeat as the Big Ten regular season and tournament champions in 2022-23.

After averaging 27 points, eight assists and eight rebounds per game, Clark was up for all of the national player of the year awards last season. The West Des Moines, Iowa, native was named the Nancy Lieberman Point Guard of the Year, the Dawn Staley Guard of the Year, the Big Ten Player of the Year and earned Big Ten Tournament MVP.

Czinano had a fabulous season as well. The Watertown, Minn., product led the nation in field goal percentage and ranked sixth in field goals made. Czinano finished the 2021-22 season averaging 21.2 points and 6.2 rebounds per game. In the NCAA Tournament, Czinano connected on an astounding 18-of-26 field goal tries. She scored 18 points against Illinois State in the tournament opener and then 27 points against Creighton.

Here was some of the other reaction to the pair’s first pitches on Sunday.

Best photos of Iowa baseball versus Illinois State

Here were some of the best photos of Iowa baseball’s recent game against Illinois State.

Iowa suffered a 3-2 loss against Illinois State for a rare midweek setback after Illinois State scored an unearned run in the top of the seventh inning to propel the Redbirds to victory.

After Iowa’s Brody Brecht got two quick outs to start the seventh, he issued a walk and Illinois State’s JT Sokolove followed with a softly hit ball to shortstop. Michael Seegers’ throw to first was errant and went past Peyton Williams down the right field line, allowing Kayden Beauregard to score from first.

Iowa (26-15) had their chances late. Brett McCleary led off the bottom of the seventh with a single, the Hawkeyes had runners on the corners in the eighth after a Keaton Anthony walk and a Ben Wilmes single and Kyle Huckstorf was hit by a pitch in the ninth. Unfortunately, Iowa couldn’t find the big hit and the Redbirds dropped the Hawkeyes to 7-2 on the season in midweek contests.

As a result, Iowa’s postseason chances took a hit. D1Baseball has the Hawkeyes on the outside of their latest field of 64 projections. Iowa will look to get right beginning with a three-game series against Purdue this weekend.

In the meantime, here’s a glimpse of some of the best photos from the contest against the Redbirds from Duane Banks Field.

Report: Iowa school taking matters into own hands after racist incident

Charles City in Iowa is planning to create a new conference after a terrible incident during a road game in June.

Charles City isn’t going to sit by idly and wait for action after a racist incident toward a player on its baseball team.

The Iowa school is preparing to leave the Northeast Iowa Conference and start its own conference, reports the Des Moines Register.  During a school board meeting Monday night, a task force recommended Charles City leave the NEIC within the next two years.

The decision was prompted …

After Waverly-Shell Rock fans taunted Charles City outfielder Jeremiah Chapman, who is Black, during a game in June, the school formed a task force of students, coaches, staff members, principals, and alumni per the report.

The incident happened June 27. Chapman was playing center field he heard racist jeers while playing in center field at Waverly-Shell Rock. He told the Register that Waverly-Shell Rock fans starting calling him “Colin,” which he guessed was a reference to Colin Kaepernick, the former NFL quarterback who first kneeled during the national anthem in 2016 as a form of protest.

After he caught a fly ball, fans then shouted at Chapman, “Go back to the fields!”

Then, Chapman said, the fans told him that he should have been George Floyd, the Black man in Minneapolis killed while in police custody in May.

Later, the fans shouted, “Trump 2020!”

“It was a spark, and it definitely weighted the conversation,” Charles City superintendent Mike Fisher told the Register of the incident. “But that, in and of itself, would likely not be the only factor. It really just started the longer dialogue that this has been historical. This has been a continued issue.

“There was a consistent pattern with a partner school that was brought up.”

Fisher told the Register Charles City will not play any games at Waverly-Shell Rock, but it’s open to playing all games against the Go-Hawks in Charles City or at a neutral site.

The NEIC began awarding a “sportsmanship champion” in 2008. Standings haven’t yet been released for 2018-20, but from 2008-17, Waverly-Shell Rock finished last in the sportsmanship ratings every year.