Trying to get their ace back to acing, Iowa baseball changes up pitcher Brody Brecht’s week

CEDAR RAPIDS — In an attempt to get their ace back to acing, the Iowa baseball coaching staff decided to push back Brody Brecht’s start this week from Friday to Sunday.

Or the second game of a Saturday double-header against Minnesota at Banks Field as it turned out. The threat of rain axed Sunday’s game, forcing this twin bill.

The reason for this delay in seeing Brecht this week was twofold in nature.

It gave Brecht, who has an electric arm that could very well make him a first-round pick in this summer’s Major League Baseball Draft, a chance to get in an extra bullpen this week. The specific work done there with pitching coach Sean McGrath was to try and re-sharpen the right-hander’s killer slider, a pitch that he’d had trouble with in starts the previous two weeks against Purdue and Minnesota.

The other reason?

“The thing was that teams knowing they were going to face him on Friday, they had all week to (prepare), so get the high-velo (pitching) machines going and those things,” Iowa Coach Rick Heller said earlier this week. “So taking that away this week, giving him a couple of extra days to get things figured out with Sean is a really good thing, I think. We’ll see how it pans out, but I think he’s really close to getting back to being the Brody we know is there.”

The end result Saturday was ... OK. Brecht went 5 2/3 innings and allowed five runs, all earned, in a game Iowa lost, 10-6. He had a no decision and still doesn’t have a pitching victory yet this season.

Michigan won the first game of the DH, 4-3. Iowa had a 10-inning walk-off win of 3-2 Friday night.

“We did some things differently this weekend to try and get some things straightened out,” Heller said. “Mix the rotation up a little bit and see if we can get some guys going in the right direction. Just keep plugging away and trying to get things to click there.”

Brecht went 5-2 with a 3.74 earned run average last season for Iowa, holding opponents to a .143 batting average and striking out 109 in 77 innings. Generally he’s been pretty good this season for Iowa, but he gave up seven hits and six runs (three earned) in a loss to Purdue two weeks ago and gave up seven runs in the third inning last week in a game the Hawkeyes led 7-0 but ended up losing.

Brecht has tried to pitch through not having his wipeout slider, relying on an upper-90s fastball and newly developed split-finger change instead. Heller said ultimately it will make the Ankeny native a better pitcher.

Brecht went into Saturday’s appearance with an 0-1 record and 4.02 ERA in seven starts, allowing 25 hits and 26 walks in 31 1/3 innings, striking out 58.

He’d also hit six batters. Command/control has been an issue at times for all three Iowa starters this season (Brecht, Marcus Morgan and Cade Obermueller) and the pitching staff as a whole.

It’s why Iowa ended Saturday with just a 16-13 overall record, 5-4 in the Big Ten Conference. The Hawkeyes contrarily have been great offensively, though they had to play this weekend set without Andy Nelson and Sam Petersen, the top two guys in their batting order.

They’re out injured.

“The good thing is as a team, they’ve pulled for each other,” Heller said. “The attitude is good, the camaraderie is good, there is no finger pointing. Everybody is trying to pick up the slack, pick each other up, and work through everything. All of us believe that if you do that, you give yourself a chance to get on a roll. Hopefully that happens here soon.”

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