Brody Brecht sharp as Iowa baseball wins series finale at Nebraska

LINCOLN, Neb. — Iowa’s Brody Brecht changed his mental approach the past couple of starts.

The results have been impressive for the Hawkeye hurler.

Brecht scattered two hits and struck out 11 through seven innings in leading Iowa to a 4-1 win over Nebraska in Game 3 of a Big Ten baseball series at Haymarket Park.

Brecht’s revised mental approach helped him dominate the Nebraska hitters who had been enjoying great success in the first two games of the series against Iowa. Nebraska scored seven runs in Friday’s win, then handed Iowa a 12-2 loss in the Game 2 completion Sunday.

“I’m not worrying about anything besides executing pitches,” Brecht said. “That’s put me in a good head spot. I’m not worrying about anything I can’t control.

“I’m being present and where my feet are.”

Brecht threw 109 pitches, striking out Dylan Carey to finish the seventh inning with Iowa leading 4-1 at that point.

“I knew my pitch count was up there. I wanted to put my team in the best position to win,” Brecht said.

Brecht’s entire arsenal was working well throughout the game.

“He did a great job for the most part pounding the strike zone,” said Iowa Coach Rick Heller. “He was in control the entire game. It was a good mix of everything. It was good to see.”

Jack Young retired all six batters he faced in the eighth and ninth innings to record the save for the Hawkeyes in his first outing of the weekend, striking out four in the process.

“Jack was outstanding,” Heller said. “It was nice to have Jack back there fresh tonight.”

Iowa scored a run in the first on a Davis Cop two-out double. Gable Mitchell ripped a two-out home run in the second to extend the Iowa lead to 2-0. Raider Tello added to the Iowa advantage with a two-out home run in the fifth. Conner Hennings scored on a wild pitch in the sixth to round out Iowa’s scoring.

Nebraska’s lone run came in the fourth.

Iowa battled through a seven-hour delay before the start of the completion of Saturday’s game, then followed by Sunday’s regularly scheduled game.

“I just can’t say enough about the kids’ resilience hanging in,” Heller said. “It’s not easy to do. We got warmed up, hit, did infield and bang, close to game time it hit, then to sit around that long. Kudos to our kids for hanging in there.”

Heller noted that Sunday’s win will help heading into a five-game homestand this week for the Hawkeyes.

“That was just awesome heading in to a nice homestand,” Heller said.

Iowa improves to 24-17 overall and 10-8 in Big Ten play. The Hawkeyes return home to face Illinois State Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Banks Field, then face North Dakota State on Wednesday, and Northwestern next weekend, also at Banks Field.