Iowa’s Gable Mitchell just finds a way to get on base

In a baseball world obsessed with home runs, power, exit velocity, launch angle and all that, Gable Mitchell is sort of an outlier.

A wonderful, beautiful outlier.

The University of Iowa junior shortstop can hit the ball hard. He’s got three homers and 14 doubles so far this college baseball season.

But his game is more simple offensively, if you will. Scratch and claw to get on base somehow, someway, and don’t ever strikeout.

“I don’t know if it’s just hand-eye coordination, but when I swing the bat, I usually hit the ball,” said Mitchell, whose Hawkeyes host Indiana in a three-game Big Ten Conference series Friday night (6:02 p.m.), Saturday afternoon (2:02) and Sunday afternoon (1:02). “Which can be good, but it also can be bad. Because if I do chase, often times I’ll have weak contact rather than fouling it off or waiting to see the next pitch.

“But, overall, I’d say I do have pretty good plate discipline, and it definitely helps to understand the strike zone. You know what to swing at and what not to. That’s definitely going to lead to good things overall.”

Mitchell has reached base via hit, walk or hit batter in all 40 of Iowa’s games this season. He has at least one hit in 35 of them, picking up at least one walk in three other games and getting hit by a pitch in two others.

His on-base streak is 41, going back to the end of last season.

Mitchell has a team-best .354 batting average, has 25 walks, been hit six times and struck out just 12 times. That’s basically never giving away an at-bat.

“Marty gives us a stat about balls in play, that there is a 30-percent chance a ball is going to find a way to get through if you just make contact,” he said, referring to Iowa associate head coach and hitting coach Marty Sutherland. “I don’t know what’s all behind it, but the point is if you put the ball in play, you have a chance.

“Obviously you don’t want to make just any contact. You still want to have the opportunity to drive baseballs with two strikes. But there is definitely a benefit, especially at the college level, to making guys make plays (defensively).”

Mitchell hit .293 last season as Iowa’s primary second baseman, but has moved to the left of the bag this season, a position he has played virtually his entire baseball life, including as an all-stater at Iowa City High. He recently was named to the watch list for the Brooks Wallace Award as college baseball’s top shortstop.

The grandson of wrestling legend Dan Gable, Mitchell’s father, Brian, is the head coach at City High and a former player at Iowa. He played in the Toronto Blue Jays organization, and professional baseball is Gable Mitchell’s ultimate goal.

He played the past two summers for LaCrosse in the collegiate wood-bat Northwoods League, but doesn’t know where he’ll play this summer. He is eligible to be taken in July’s MLB Draft, so it might be as a pro

But first things first, and that’s this Iowa team. The Hawkeyes are 28-12 overall and in first place in the Big Ten Conference with a 17-4 record.

They’ve surprised quite a few people with their success.

“You always believed,” Mitchell said. “Obviously if you looked at social media, we were a team that was projected to be lower in the Big Ten. But it’s one of those things where it doesn’t matter what people say. You’ve got to play.

“We had such a new team this year, guys that are gritty and tough competitors, that we knew that if we strung some things together, we could be really good.”

Comments: jeff.johnson@thegazette.com