No Big Ten title, but likely an NCAA tournament berth for Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team

CEDAR RAPIDS — They’re still in the NCAA tournament. Don’t worry too much about that.

The Iowa Hawkeyes would have 100-percent, fully guaranteed a spot in college baseball’s version of the big dance with a win in Sunday afternoon’s Big Ten Conference Baseball Tournament championship game at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb.

But a 4-0 loss to top-seeded Maryland made them officially an at-large berth candidate. A strong at-large candidate with a RPI of somewhere around the high-20s or low-30s when it’s all said and done.

In other words, they should be in really good shape. Iowa (42-14) will find out its regional assignment Monday.

“I think being in the environment that we were in today will make next week much more normal for our guys regardless of the outcome today,” said Iowa Coach Rick Heller. “It was super beneficial to have the awesome crowd that came out for us. It put our guys in a different situation than what they are normally in, and anytime you are put in a situation like that it's a positive and it's going to help us grow.”

An offense that has been oh, so productive down the stretch was impotent Sunday. The Hawkeyes were shutout for just the third time this season, the first time since a 2-0, 10-inning loss April 8 at Indiana.

They grounded into three double plays, including an around-the-horn one that ended things. Both teams bullpenned this game, with Maryland (41-19) using five pitchers who limited Iowa to five hits.

The Hawkeyes left two on in both the first and second innings, and a runner in scoring position in the third, but never seriously threatened to score thereafter.

“We had a lot of missed opportunities early in the game,” Heller said. “We needed to do some damage against (Maryland starting pitcher Ryan) Van Buren and (reliever Andrew) Johnson when we had runners in scoring position. But we hit a few line drives right at the right fielder.”

Maryland didn’t do a whole lot more offensively but had the long ball going for it. After a leadoff walk in the fifth, Kevin Keister hit a two-run home run to left field.

Two batters later, Nick Lorusso hit a solo shot to left, his 23rd home run this season and 99th RBI. Jacob Orr’s run-scoring single in the sixth made it a 4-0 game.

Maryland was the Big Ten’s best offensive team this season. The Terrapins won the Big Ten regular season, tying with Indiana for first, and claimed its first Big Ten tournament title.

Iowa started Marcus Morgan on the mound Sunday, though he went just two innings because he was working on short rest (four days instead of the normal seven for college pitchers) and so he can be available this coming week for regionals.

Jack Whitlock (7-1), who has been great all season, allowed the three fifth-inning runs and took the loss. Luke Llewellyn, another very effective Hawkeyes reliever this season, gave up the run in the sixth.

Iowa lost for just the fifth time in 24 games. This was its first appearance in the Big Ten tournament championship game since 2017.

This is the most wins under Heller. The all-time school record for victories is 44 in 1981.

That’s a mark that the Hawkeyes should have a chance to tie and break.

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