Iowa’s Brennen Dorighi goes from scrub to star

CEDAR RAPIDS — He wasn’t much. He definitely didn’t play much.

Brennen Dorighi got into all of 14 baseball games his first two seasons at Wofford College in South Carolina.

“That was kind of a running joke,” Dorighi said. “I was the (perfect example) of a development player.”

But, boy, did the kid develop.

He made 30 starts as a junior in 2021, was an all-Southern Conference first-team pick last season. As the Iowa Hawkeyes go into their three-game Big Ten Conference series this weekend at Indiana, Dorighi is their leading hitter.

From never playing to a .357 batting average in five years. That’s not bad.

“I’ve been to summer ball every year I’ve been in college, and I think just getting those at-bats, I’ve been able to refine my game,” Dorighi said. “I was really toolsy, I guess you’d say, but didn’t make much contact and didn’t swing at the right pitches. I think with a ton of patience from my coaches and just developing overall, tweaking stuff and working on my own, that’s how I’ve been able to develop as a hitter.”

A Colorado native, Dorighi, who also leads Iowa in RBIs, said he had no real expectations when he entered the transfer portal after last season. He wondered who, if anyone, would be interested in him.

He found a fit with Iowa, a kinship with assistant head coach Marty Sutherland. Mostly an outfielder throughout his career, Dorighi has been the replacement for slugger Peyton Williams at first base for the Hawkeyes.

Williams is playing pro ball in the Toronto Blue Jays organization.

“First of all, when I was in the transfer portal and looking for schools to come to, I was gearing my search toward schools that had similar beliefs as Wofford. Just because if they value the same things that Wofford does, they would value me as a player,” Dorighi said. “So offensively, I think there are a lot of traits that match up between our lineup and the way we’re coached by Marty to my coach for the previous four years. That made the transition seamless.”

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Dorighi was asked to expound on the similar beliefs between Wofford and Iowa.

“We call it doing your 1-9s. Doing your role,” he said. “Nobody is going up there trying to bat in all the runs, hit a home run every time. It’s more about just doing what your strength is. Both programs value getting on base over everything else, so it’s limiting strikeouts, trying to execute, move runners over, stuff like that.”

The defensive part of his game is coming along, too. He has just one error, crediting head coach Rick Heller for his patience and tutelage.

“There were no absolutes when I was in the portal. I just kind of wanted to send out some feelers and see what happened,” he said. “It ended up working out to where Iowa was the best place.”

Iowa takes a 21-6 record into the weekend. The Hawkeyes lost two of three games at home to Maryland last week in their Big Ten opening series, though they won Sunday’s game, rallying from a 6-1 deficit.

Indiana is 20-9, 5-1 in the Big Ten.

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