Pair of wins moves Iowa baseball on to Sunday at Big Ten Conference tournament

It was revenge and remaining alive Saturday morning for the Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team. And remaining alive again Saturday night.

Peyton Williams and Kyle Huckstorf had home runs as part of a 16-hit attack in Iowa’s 11-3 win over Penn State in a losers’ bracket game at the Big Ten Conference tournament at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.

The Hawkeyes then gave Michigan its first tournament loss, 7-3, to advance to Sunday play. Huckstorf had a pair of hits and three RBIs for Iowa (36-18) and starting pitcher Cam Baumann went 5 2/3 innings to get his first victory of the season.

“I started off slow and struggled with fastball command during the early part of the season and started to really settle in this past month,” said Baumann. “It has been up and down mentally. I knew all my stuff was good and I knew it would start clicking. You just have to stick with it and that’s what I have done.”

Iowa and Michigan (30-26) will play again Sunday afternoon at 1, with the winner advancing to the tournament championship game against Rutgers (44-14). Rutgers eliminated Indiana late Saturday night.

“I am proud of our guys,” said Iowa Coach Rick Heller. “It was a long day with two hard-fought games. Cam put us on his back, I am proud of Cam tonight. He stepped up and did exactly what we needed him to do. He stepped up in a big-time game and was great for us.”

Penn State (26-29) beat Iowa in a tournament opener Thursday morning, but the return game was pretty much all Hawkeyes. They scored four times in the fourth inning, three in the fifth and twice in the six to take a commanding 9-3 lead.

Michael Seegers had four hits and Keaton Anthony three for Iowa. Seven different players drove in runs.

“We stayed after it and finally broke through with the big hit,” Heller said. “Cade Moss had a big day (two hits, two RBIs), Michael Seegers, Huckstorf, and it was nice to see Keaton and Williams swing it well today. Really up and down the lineup, we got quality at-bats all day long.”

Starting pitcher Ty Langenberg (7-2) went the first 5 2/3 innings to get the victory. Jacob Henderson, Luke Llewellyn and Duncan Davitt finished up.

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