Iowa baseball sweeps the weekly Big Ten awards, extending the single-season program record

Keaton Anthony, Kyle Huckstorf and Dylan Nedved were all honored as the Iowa Hawkeyes swept the weekly Big Ten baseball awards.

Iowa swept its way past Indiana last weekend to the tune of 30-16, 12-0, and 2-1 victories over the Hoosiers. The Hawkeyes wound up sweeping their way through the Big Ten weekly baseball awards as well.

Redshirt sophomore Kyle Huckstorf was named the co-Big Ten Player of the Week, redshirt senior Dylan Nedved the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week and Keaton Anthony the Big Ten Freshman of the Week.

Huckstorf had a historic day in Iowa’s unforgettable rally in game one versus Indiana. After trailing 13-2 early, Huckstorf’s big day spearheaded the Hawkeyes’ comeback efforts.

The 5-foot-8, 175 pound native of Waterford, Wis., hit three home runs over the course of a pair of innings as Iowa erased the early 11-run deficit. In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Hawkeyes sent 15 batters to the plate to erase that deficit in a hurry.

Huckstorf sandwiched a pair of three-run blasts around a two-run shot from Anthony. He wasn’t done there. In the fifth inning, Huckstorf added a go-ahead grand slam, giving him three homers and 10 RBIs in a two-inning span.

With the bases loaded in the eighth, Huckstorf lined a two-run single to right center for his record-breaking hit. It gave him the Big Ten single-game RBI record with 12 and it was his sixth hit, tying him for the league record for hits in a game.

“This is going to be the day that I take with me until I die. It will be stories that live on forever and I’ll have fun with it. I came out here with the same goal in mind, trying to barrel up the ball, hit it hard and as you see today, good things happen. The wind was in my favor, which was a good thing,” Huckstorf said of his record-breaking day.

In addition to his co-Big Ten Player of the Week honor, Huckstorf was named the Dick Howser Trophy National Co-Hitter of the Week by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

Meanwhile, Anthony picked up Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors for a record sixth time this season. The 6-foot-4, 210 pound outfielder finished the week against the Hoosiers having homered in three straight games and finished with five runs and five RBIs on the weekend.

Lastly, Nedved captured the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week award after tossing six shutout innings in a series-clinching victory in game two. The right-hander from Shawnee, Kan., had a no-hitter through 5 1/3 innings before being lifted following the sixth because of a pitch count. He allowed one hit over six innings and fanned six to notch his sixth victory of the season.

The accolades are the 11th, 12th and 13th weekly honors for the Hawkeyes this season, extending a program record.

Iowa earned the No. 3 seed in the Big Ten Tournament where the Hawkeyes will square off with sixth-seeded Penn State today at 5 p.m. from Charles Schwab Field Omaha in Omaha, Neb., in their first postseason matchup. If the Hawkeyes can win, it’s the winner of No. 2 seed Rutgers and No. 7 seed Purdue.

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Iowa baseball, Kyle Huckstorf make history in record-breaking day in series-opening win over Indiana

Redshirt sophomore Kyle Huckstorf had a day for the ages as Iowa erased an 11-run deficit and rallied to top Indiana, 30-16.

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.

Iowa Hawkeyes baseball rallies to sweep Minnesota, improves to 20-12

Iowa’s offense exploded for an eight-run seventh inning to rally back and top Minnesota, 9-3, on Sunday to earn the series sweep.

Through six innings, it looked and felt like Iowa’s offense might not be able to put it together to earn the series sweep of Minnesota from Duane Banks Field. Following a 9-3 win on Friday and a 2-1 triumph on Saturday, the Hawkeyes had mustered up just three hits over the game’s first six innings on Sunday and trailed 3-0.

Then, the dam burst loose in the seventh. After one-out singles from sophomore Kyle Huckstorf and freshman Ben Wilmes, sophomore Michael Seegers drove in the game’s first run for the Hawks with an RBI single to right field to cut the deficit to 3-1.

Redshirt sophomore Peyton Williams delivered an RBI groundout to score Wilmes and bring the Hawkeyes back within a run. Redshirt senior Izaya Fullard worked a two-out walk and then redshirt sophomore Ben Tallman tied the game up with an RBI single.

Suddenly, after seemingly being stuck in the mud offensively all afternoon long, Iowa had a chance to take the lead and sweep the series. Sophomore Will Mulflur gave Iowa its first lead of the day with a two-run double down the third base line, putting the Hawkeyes in front, 5-3.

“I was trying to go up there and keep fighting. I found myself in a lot of two strike counts this season. I wanted to see it deep with two strikes and get a good swing on it. I got it past the third baseman,” Mulflur said.

Iowa didn’t stop there in the seventh. Freshman Sam Petersen added an RBI single and Wilmes’ two-run single gave the Hawkeyes a five-run lead at 8-3. All told, it was an eight-run seventh inning on seven hits. Iowa added an insurance run in the eighth after Williams doubled and then scored on a wild pitch.

After Minnesota scratched three runs off sophomore right-hander Ty Langenburg over the game’s first three innings, Iowa turned to redshirt sophomore lefty Benjamin DeTaeye. DeTaeye responded with a pair of spotless innings of relief.

Redshirt senior righty Dylan Nedved took Iowa the rest of the way in relief, delivering four innings of one-hit, scoreless baseball for the Hawkeyes.

“It feels good to give your team a chance. It was big to get those shut down innings so it could give our team a chance to come back and win. We were able to get it done, so it was nice,” Nedved said.

Iowa wound up winning on Sunday by the same score as Friday, 9-3. In the process, the Hawkeyes earned their first Big Ten series sweep since winning all three games at Michigan State in last year’s regular season finale.

“Getting a sweep is big, especially at home. It is good momentum for everyone on the team, especially going into a tough one on the road next week. We have to take care business during the midweek, too, against Bradley.

“It was a good confidence booster with everybody. The pitchers coming out and throwing strikes, always giving us a chance, the offense coming through. It felt like we were able to be who we are this weekend and it worked out,” Mulflur said.

Iowa head baseball coach Rick Heller said the comeback illustrated what this team wants to be about.

“To get a win today, especially coming back late like that, it was good for the confidence and psyche of the team. To do it with a bunch of guys out of the lineup, it says a lot about our culture and the toughness of the group we have. It was a lot of guys stepping up and getting the job done. It was a good team win today,” Heller said.

Iowa hosts Bradley on Tuesday night at 6:05 p.m. CT from Duane Banks Field before a three-game weekend series at Rutgers.

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