Iowa’s Keaton Anthony adds pitching to his baseball repertoire

IOWA CITY — He didn’t turn pro. He didn’t end up transferring to an SEC school or somewhere else closer to his home in Georgia.

And Keaton Anthony is adding pitching to his list of duties.

“I’ve been doing it since high school,” Anthony said at Wednesday’s Iowa Hawkeye baseball media day at Banks Field. “I feel like I can do it at this level, I’m confident in my abilities, and I want to help the team anyway I can. I feel confident on the mound that I can help us, and obviously in the box, too. Whatever I can do to help us win games.”

After redshirting because of injury two years ago, Anthony was the Big Ten Conference’s Freshman of the Year last season, a freshman All-American by virtually everyone last season. He hit .361 with 14 home runs and 55 RBIs in 53 games for Iowa.

As a 21-year-old, he was a rare Division I college freshman eligible for the 2022 Major League Baseball Draft. Anthony had all kinds of leverage when it came to draft bonus demands and ended up not being picked.

He easily could have decided to transfer to a higher-profile Southern program and played right away to improve his draft stock. Instead he stayed put.

“There weren’t many things under the table that happened,” Anthony said with a smile. “There were definitely some people back home that asked me ‘Are you going to leave?’ This place is home for me, I love it here. I never want to restart anywhere else. I’m so comfortable here. Comfortable with all the coaches, all my teammates. It was never in my mind that I wanted to leave and go somewhere else.”

A preseason All-American, Anthony will move over to first base this season to replace Peyton Williams, who is playing professionally in the Toronto Blue Jays organization. Williams and pitchers Adam Mazur (second round by the San Diego Padres), Dylan Nedved (Padres) and Duncan Davitt (Tampa Bay Rays) all were MLB draft picks off of the 2022 Iowa team.

Pitcher Ben Beutel signed with the Chicago White Sox as an undrafted free agent.

“I think it says a lot,” Iowa Coach Rick Heller said of Anthony’s return. “One, Keaton is looking at the bigger picture, when sometimes guys don’t. He had double-draft year, being a draft-eligible sophomore. I guess that would be the golden ticket if you were a player, because you’ve got two leverage years. The thing that made me happy is, one, you know the program is strong, and he feels like he’s going to improve, otherwise he wouldn’t have come back.

“The other thing is his maturity. That if he didn’t get the money that he wanted, he knew he could come back, bet on himself and hopefully get that next year.”

Iowa went 36-19 last season, failing to gain an at-large NCAA tournament bid. There appears to be enough talent offensively and pitching wise to offset all the pro ball and other losses.

Heller said he really likes the potential of his outfielders, which include sophomore Sam Petersen and junior Kyle Huckstorf. Former Cedar Rapids Jefferson prep Brayden Frazier is a junior who has seen playing time, and Kirkwood Community College transfer Chase Moseley should push to get at-bats.

Junior Ty Langenberg will take over for Mazur as Iowa’s Friday starter. Zach Voelker, a sophomore transfer from Long Beach State probably will figure into the rotation somewhere, with a lot of other intriguing, yet mostly inexperienced, arms, also around.

Guys like sophomores Marcus Morgan and Brody Brecht. The freshman class includes Dubuque Wahlert grad Aaron Savary and Iowa City High grad Cade Obermueller.

“A lot of charisma on our team,” Morgan said. “A gritty group. We’re closer than any other team I think I’ve ever been a part of.”

Iowa opens the season in Port Charlotte, Fla., with games against Indiana State (Feb. 17) and Quinnipiac (Feb.18 and 19).

“Having a chance to scrimmage on Saturday and Sunday this past week (outside) was a big benefit for us. We were able to pick out some things we really needed to work on,” Heller said. “We have a chance to have an excellent team. A lot of new faces on the mound, and that’s probably going to be the biggest question mark early, how we’re going to organize that and manage the bullpen, especially after losing a back-end closer in Dylan Nedved, who was nails for three years for us. But I feel like we’ve got talented guys in those spots.

“Offensively, defensively, I really like the potential to what we could be, and I’m anxious to get going.”

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