Iowa baseball team beats up Rutgers, 15-5, setting up possibility of big Big Ten sweep

IOWA CITY – The answer is Western Illinois.

If you were curious, that’s the only opponent the Iowa baseball team has swept in a series this season. For now.

A 15-5 win Saturday afternoon over Rutgers at very chilly and blustery Banks Field gives the Hawkeyes an opportunity to add to their sweep list. Kyle Huckstorf hit a grand slam, and Iowa scored eight times in the fourth inning to win Game 2 of this Big Ten Conference series.

The finale is Sunday afternoon at 1:05.

“For one, it would be good to get the sweep because it would put us in a much better spot,” Iowa Coach Rick Heller said. “It’s a big swing game. We’ve had a few of those where it didn’t go our way. But first and foremost, we talked all week about playing with our backs against the wall. Let’s get after it, no fear. Don’t worry about things you can’t control. You can’t change anything that’s happened. Let’s see if we can go out the rest of the season, under 20 games left, and play them all that way. Whether we win or lose, let’s give that kind of effort. That kind of focus and energy. So that’s the big challenge tomorrow. To come out and give great effort.”

This hasn’t been the season Iowa expected to have. Let’s stress that’s to this point.

There are still 17 games left, including three Big Ten series: at Nebraska, at home against Northwestern and at Illinois. The Illini led the league with an 8-2 record going into Saturday night, followed by Purdue at 8-4, Michigan at 9-5, Nebraska at 7-4 and Indiana at 6-4.

Right now, Michigan State holds eighth place at 5-6.

“The league, the distance between where we are and the top isn’t very far,” Heller said. “There are a lot of teams in the league that are really good this year. I think people are seeing it backwards. They’re thinking that because there aren’t a couple of teams that are dominating, that the league is not as good. What has happened is the league top to bottom. Anybody can beat anybody. You have to play well to beat anyone.

“That’s what we keep talking about. We can still do a lot of the things we (originally) set out to do. We might have to do it a different way. But first you’ve got to get into the conference tournament.”

Iowa has arguably the Big Ten’s top offense, which was proven again Saturday. The Hawkeyes had 14 hits, at least one from every player in the starting lineup.

Starting pitcher Marcus Morgan struggled with his control, walking seven, but gutted through 4 1/3 innings. Reece Beuter and Jack Whitlock followed with 4 2/3 scoreless relief innings.

That’s huge because the bullpen has been inconsistent all season. Actually the starting rotation has as well.

If Morgan, Cade Obermueller and Brody Brecht (expected to pitch Sunday) can string solid starts together, this team could be very dangerous down the stretch and in the Big Ten tournament.

“We know we haven’t performed to our level, yet,” said Huckstorf, who made a couple of beautiful defensive catches in center field in this game as well. “We know this would be a big statement series for us. If we can go out and get the win tomorrow, we’ll know we are playing to our expectations.

“We definitely had high expectations this year. We have fallen a little short of those, I believe, so far. But we know we can turn our season around at any point. We’ve just got to keep looking at the next game as an opportunity. If we keep doing that, we’ll be just fine. Baseball is a game of runs. Teams get hot.”

Comments: (319)-398-8258, jeff.johnson@thegazette.com