An Iowa Little Leaguer showed off his cannon of an arm to get runner at home plate, and fans were impressed

What a rocket of an arm!

During an elimination game between Iowa (Midwest Region) and Utah (Mountain Region) in the Little League World Series on Sunday, one player made a positively ridiculous play. It was also pretty clutch in what is shaping up to be a wild tournament thus far.

The bases were loaded for Utah in the second inning while trying to come back from an early 4-1 deficit. Utah’s Dash Avery got enough of a solid hit on what probably would’ve been a sac-fly that led to a few runs in almost any other circumstance. But not on the watch of Iowa’s Greyson Ballinger.

You see, the outfielder caught the ball on the run and, in one seamless motion, launched an absolute rocket right to the catcher’s glove at home plate. Yes, of course, the runner was thrown out!

Goodness, gracious! You’ll never guess the end result of the inning for Utah, by the way: Just one run as Iowa went on to win the game 10-2.

Plays like Ballinger’s are the sorts of fantastic moments from amazing Little Leaguers that make the Little League World Series so much fun to watch.

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247Sports projects the Iowa Hawkeyes as a top-five defense nationally in 2022

Iowa’s defense was fantastic last year. 247Sports’ Brad Crawford expects more of the same, ranking Iowa as his No. 4 defense nationally.

Brad Crawford of 247Sports is not buying into the idea of Iowa’s defense regressing in 2022 one bit. In his latest ranking of his projected top 10 defenses in the country for 2022, Crawford has the Hawkeyes high on his list at No. 4 nationally.

One of the pace of play kings in the Big Ten as it relates to exactly what Iowa wants to do, the Hawkeyes mastered turnover margin in 2021 with 31 takeaways, seven more than their next closest competitor in the conference. Absurd. Nine starters return from a defense that swiped 25 interceptions. One of those top veterans is Jack Campbell, who has a chance to lead college football in total tackles if he stays healthy. Riley Moss is back too after earning the Big Ten’s Defensive Back of the Year honors despite missing a quarter of the season with an injury. Defensive coordinator Phil Parker has to look at this roster and smile heading into the opener. – Crawford, 247Sports.

It seems that Crawford doesn’t have the same fears about the Hawkeyes’ turnover margin that Maize N Brew has. While Maize N Brew worries about Iowa replicating their success in the turnovers department, Crawford recognizes just how many of those playmakers are returning. It may not be the same absurd amount from last year, but it is safe to assume that with so many players returning, the Hawkeyes will still generate a lot of takeaways.

It isn’t just turnovers that makes Iowa a top unit. They were 13th in the nation in points allowed per game with 19.2. They also only allowed 4.72 yards per play, good for seventh nationally. The Hawkeyes aren’t just a boom or bust defense, taking the ball away but still letting up scores. They can dismantle opposing offenses, and largely did besides Michigan last year. With a ton of playmakers coming back next year, led by star linebacker Jack Campbell and cornerback Riley Moss, look for Iowa to potentially be even better on defense this season.

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Notre Dame to play Maryland in ACC/Big Ten Challenge

Looking forward to this matchup?

Notre Dame will welcome Maryland to Purcell Pavilion this upcoming season for the annual ACC/Big Ten Challenge. It should be one of the better matchups in this year’s iteration as both programs are coming off Sweet 16 appearances. The Irish have the slimmest of leads in the all-time series, 5-4. The teams last met during a 92-victory in the 2014 edition of this event.

The Irish have a 7-1 all-time record in the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. A win in this game, which will be played Dec. 1, would make the Terrapins the second program they’ve beaten twice in this event alongside Iowa. The other Big Ten opponents to fall to the Irish are Michigan, Ohio State and Penn State.

While this game is worth looking forward to, it will be far from the all-time series’ highest stakes. Twice, the Irish have downed the Terrapins in the NCAA Tournament. The first time happened in the 2012 regional finals, and the second during the 2014 national semifinals.

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Notre Dame lands four-star 2024 receiver Cam Williams

This may or may not be a shameless plug for one of our writers’ high school.

This is a real privilege for me. My high school doesn’t have that rich of a football history, but often times, a player will have the opportunity to play at a prominent school. That’s how it is at Glenbard South in Glen Ellyn, Illinois. One of those opportunities has come along, and every Raider, myself included, should be proud of the fact that four-star receiver [autotag]Cam Williams [/autotag]has selected Notre Dame.

Williams, a 2024 recruit, picked the Irish over Michigan, Iowa, Wisconsin and Cincinnati, all of which made the final cut. Our own Michael Chen has seen Williams in person and provided a good scouting report on him. Me? I’m just thrilled that someone from my old stomping grounds is taking his talents to South Bend, so forgive my celebratory mood in this post.

You all should know that I found out this news on a Facebook post from Dave Key, who is the biggest Glenbard South athletics fan who has ever lived. Nobody bleeds Raider red, white and blue like him, and he is known to attend games for any college football player who passed through the school. When Williams has his first game at Notre Dame Stadium, he needs to be there, too. So if anyone has an extra ticket for the Irish’s 2024 home opener against Northern Illinois, have a heart and give it to him.

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Iowa guard Payton Sandfort pegged for breakout season by CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein

CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein feels Payton Sandfort can emerge as one of Iowa men’s basketball’s best players in the 2022-23 season.

Is there a young Iowa guard flying under the radar?

While, yes, most of the attention for next year’s men’s basketball team is firmly placed on Kris Murray, CBS Sports’ Jon Rothstein tweeted out about another potential breakout star for the Hawkeyes.

That breakout candidate is sophomore-to-be Payton Sandfort. The 6-foot-7 wing out of Waukee High School in Iowa earned praise from Rothstein following an inaugural campaign where he averaged five points and 1.9 rebounds per game in just 10.5 minutes of average floor time.

As demonstrated by Rothstein, Sandfort didn’t play a ton of minutes in the 2021-22 season. When on the court for extended periods of time, he looked like a guy Iowa could count on in the future. As Rothstein noted, Sandfort averaged 11.7 points per game in contests where he logged 15 or more minutes of floor time.

Hawkeye fans saw early in the season Sandfort’s potential against some tuneup opponents in early November. Sandfort scored a career-high 21 points against SWAC opponent Alabama State. He then dropped 19 the following game against Western Michigan, sinking five of his seven 3-point attempts.

His performance under the bright lights of the Big Ten Tournament was encouraging as well. In his 15 minutes of action against Northwestern in the tournament’s opening round, Sandfort scored 13 points and added three buckets from long range. Against Purdue in the conference championship game, he scored 10 points off the bench and didn’t miss a single shot.

There is a lot of hope for a big sophomore breakout from Sandfort this upcoming year, and it would really boost Iowa’s chances of repeating as Big Ten Tournament champions. Iowa lost some key contributors this offseason. Recent No. 4 overall 2023 NBA draft selection Keegan Murray is the obvious one, but Jordan Bohannon started for about a half-decade.

The hope is that Kris Murray can follow in the footsteps of his twin brother, Patrick McCaffery can live up to some of the preseason love he’s garnered and then Iowa can find production in other places as well.

Sandfort showed a lot of potential as a shooter coming off the bench his freshman year, and those key performances in the Big Ten Tournament are very exciting. If he can take his game to another level, his partnership with Murray alongside a returning Patrick McCaffrey and Filip Rebraca could take Iowa back into the 2023 NCAA Tournament.

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Iowa Hawkeyes head coach Fran McCaffery refutes Keegan Murray’s low ceiling label

Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery pushed back against the notion that former Hawkeye star Keegan Murray has a low ceiling.

Many saw Iowa forward Keegan Murray as the high-floor, low-ceiling type of prospect. Just don’t let Iowa head men’s basketball coach Fran McCaffery hear that, though.

“Anybody who would bring that up is not worth listening to because they clearly don’t know anything about the game,” McCaffery said in a recent interview with Locked on Kings.

McCaffery didn’t mince words one bit defending his former star against anyone that would downplay Murray’s potential.

“It’s as idiotic of a statement as I’ve ever heard. Clearly, you are making a statement about who you are talking about. Because, if you do your homework, you would know that’s not the case,” McCaffery said.

There was a mixed reaction from fans on social media after Murray went No. 4 overall in the 2023 NBA draft to the Sacramento Kings. Many saw Purdue guard Jaden Ivey as a better prospect with a higher ceiling.

Ivey’s an extremely athletic guard in the mold of a Ja Morant. While he might not have the greatest floor with his 3-point shot still needing development and his turnovers remain a bit of a problem, many viewed his ceiling being as high as anyone’s in this draft and better than Murray’s.

McCaffery would not put down now-Detroit Piston Jaden Ivey to prop up Murray.

“I’m a big Jaden Ivey fan. I’ve coached against him for two years. I know his mother well. We were at Notre Dame together. I was an assistant coach, she was playing and coaching. I think the world of him,” McCaffery said.

He did say Murray was most likely a better fit for the Kings’ current roster, a point Hawkeyes Wire explored on draft night. With point guard De’Aaron Fox there, Ivey would have been an extremely similar player. He’s not a carbon copy at all, but both are explosive guards who can drive to the hoop. The Kings needed a secondary scorer from the wing who could shoot and play defense.

“He plays both ends, he doesn’t make mistakes, he makes plays for his teammates, he fits with his teammates, and he consistently performs. I think the hardest part for any general manager is to try and predict just how consistently a guy will be able to perform for 82 games. That is so incredibly hard to do. But I can promise you, Keegan Murray will be able to consistently perform for over 100 games,” McCaffery said.

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‘Not realistic’ to recruit in Ohio State’s neighborhood: Kirk Ferentz outlines plan to keep winning

Kirk Ferentz went into detail with the Des Moines Register’s Chad Leistikow on how the Hawkeyes can keep winning in the NIL era.

In a recent, wide-ranging interview with the Des Moines Register’s Chad Leistikow, Iowa head football coach Kirk Ferentz discussed some of the Hawkeyes’ approach to name, image and likeness moving forward. While final details from the university haven’t been released yet, Ferentz said to be on the lookout in the coming weeks.

Leistikow put together a really good write up for Des Moines Register and Hawk Central subscribers that shares Ferentz’s full thoughts from their conversation here.

Hawk Central released a portion of Leistikow’s conversation with Ferentz. In this part of their interview, Ferentz detailed how Iowa has won in the past and why it’s not necessarily feasible for the Hawkeyes to try to get in an NIL recruiting war with programs like Ohio State anyways.

Ferentz also outlined the keys of team building, a reminder that Ohio State’s approach is not the rule and guide for success for every team in Division I football.

“I think what you’ve seen is pretty consistent performance if you look at our win totals in our conference and even actually during that last period since 2015 or the last three years. They’re healthy numbers, and not that we don’t want to do better, not that we can’t do better and we’re always looking to do better, but I think you also have to have an appreciation for how those things happen.

“It’s usually not just about one series or one this or one that, it’s a bigger picture. And for us to win—at least in my estimation—for us to win consistently, we’ve got to play good team-concept football. That’s our best opportunity,” Ferentz said.

Again, as Iowa is ironing out its NIL collective and what the plan will be in the future, Ferentz isn’t suddenly under the impression that the Hawkeyes are fighting a losing recruiting battle against a program like Ohio State.

“Ohio State had two first-round draft picks in the (2023 NFL draft), two first-round receivers this past year. You could argue they’ve got the best quarterback in the country right now and you could also, at least I’ve heard NFL people say, the best receiver is coming back. So, potentially that was three first-rounders they had playing for them out there with a great quarterback.

“We aren’t in that neighborhood. That’s probably not realistic based on the last 20 years. It’s not realistic to think that we’re going to be in that neighborhood. So, you know, they’re doing what’s best for them and we’re trying to do what’s best for us. The ultimate objective is to try to win and find the best way to win, and that’s a combination of offense, defense and special teams, you know, just playing good, complementary football. That’s our, in my estimation, our best chance to be successful,” Ferentz said.

What coach Ferentz is saying holds a truth that many won’t want to think about in college football. The market for recruits is a free one, but it is not played on a level playing field. So many factors come into play.

Location, culture, conference and pro prestige. Coaches, past success, and now NIL opportunities are all factors for prospects to consider. There is a reason why the same programs consistently dominate the recruiting rankings. That tradition keeps building on itself for a variety of reasons and keeps the steady flow of prospects coming in.

There are only a select few teams in the nation who can keep up with Ohio State in the recruiting department, much less in just the Big Ten. There is a reason Ohio State has missed a top-ten recruiting class ranking just twice in the past decade.

While Iowa and Ohio State play in the same conference and fight for the Big Ten crown, the two historically have not been in the same recruiting neighborhood. That is completely fine, though.

Ferentz’s comments here about Iowa’s place in the recruiting pecking order can easily be misinterpreted by some as an excuse. It’s actually why Iowa is successful.

If the Hawkeyes tried to recruit with the Ohio States and Alabamas of the world, they might win a recruiting battle here and there. Overall, though, it would just be playing into those teams’ hands. It is a losing battle. Instead, Iowa must do what helps the team out and maximize its recruiting.

Year after year, Ferentz and his coaching staff bring in players that they know will fit their system and really buy into their team-first mentality. While it might not result in as many four or five-star recruits as some of the bigger schools, Iowa is trying to change that a bit moving forward.

Ferentz’s approach is what’s necessary for the program’s success. It’s why Iowa has been able to finish as a top-25 program consistently, fight for the Big Ten title and consistently churn out NFL players. They focus on finding the right players and building the team their way.

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2022 ACC/Big Ten Challenge matchups announced

Besides the one involving the Irish, which game most interests you?

Few things draw more excitement during the early part of the college basketball season than the ACC/Big Ten Challenge. Every team from one power conference matches up against one from the other. Whether the opponent is good or bad, it also is nice for these teams to see how well they do against a similar level of competition. It definitely is one of the major tuneups for when the conference schedule begins.

The 2022 matchups have been announced, and the ACC would like to change its luck. The conference won this series, which began in 1999, in each of its first 10 seasons. Since then, its only wins have come in 2016 and 2017, the latter of which saw it post a series-best 11-3 record. The Big Ten has had the upper hand in each of the past three years, so a changing of the guard is overdue.

Here are the matchups for this year’s edition:

Massive, near-record catfish ‘still out there’ for Iowa anglers

Iowa biologists conducting a recent fisheries survey on the Missouri River hauled up a very pregnant flathead catfish that weighed 72.4 pounds before it was released.

Iowa biologists conducting a recent survey on the Missouri River hauled up a very pregnant flathead catfish that weighed 72.4 pounds before it was released.

The massive fish was less than nine pounds shy of the state-record catch of 81 pounds, set in 1958.

ALSO: Elk poachers nabbed after ‘suspicious’ photo appears online

A photo of the catfish was shared Tuesday via Facebook by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources as a teaser for anglers who plan to get out on the water this weekend.

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“This 49.5-inch, 72.4-pound flathead catfish is still out there, ready for you to catch Saturday on National Catfish Day!” the agency boasted. “Flathead catfish are native to Iowa. In June they usually begin spawning and can be found in surprisingly small streams.”

National Catfish Day is held annually on June 25 to “celebrate the value of farm-raised catfish” as table fare. For anglers, it’s just another excuse to go fishing.

The Facebook post generated 100 comments, mostly from people sharing images of giant catfish they’ve caught in Iowa waters.

Watch: Outrageous pin placement for a girls state championship produces quadruple-bogey average, draws criticism

The tournament took more than nine hours to play with groups averaging about 20 minutes on just the 18th green. 

The Iowa Class 3A girls golf state championships were contested at River Valley Golf Course in Adel this week, according to a story in the Des Moines Register, and the festivities featured a furious day-two rally in the team race and three playoff holes to decide the individual champion.

Clear Lake rallied from 12 shots back to beat Gilbert and win the team championship, and the school now can claim three team titles in girls golf, the others coming in 2010 and 2012.

But perhaps the biggest story of the day was an outrageous pin placement on the 18th green, which caused players to average quadruple bogey on the hole.

As evidenced in a tweet by a local TV station intern, Jake Brand, the players weren’t given much of a fair shake. Again, these are 3A high school golfers being presented with this challenge, not professionals.

According to Brand, the tournament took more than nine hours to play with groups averaging about 20 minutes on just the 18th green.

The individual title came down to the third playoff hole, between Newton’s Rylee Heryford and Gilbert’s Eden Lohrbach. The two-shot identical scores of 149 — both shot 75 on Thursday, then 74 on Friday — and Heryford emerged victorious after three playoff holes. She is the first Newton girls golfer to win an individual state title.

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