Iowa baseball taking it one game at a time, but eye is on Big Ten tournament prize

IOWA CITY — It was kind of a weird deal.

University of Iowa baseball players talked Monday morning about taking it one game at a time at this week’s Big Ten Conference tournament. That old cliche.

Yet they also weren’t shy about discussing winning the eight-team event in Omaha, Neb. Sometimes teams don’t want to do that.

“We feel like we’re playing really well,” said Iowa outfielder Keaton Anthony. “We’re hitting well, pitchers are throwing well. We’re playing really well as a team. We feel like we can compete with any team there, and we’ve got a really good chance of winning.”

Anthony was named Tuesday the Big Ten’s Freshman of the Year after a regular season that saw him lead the Hawkeyes in batting average (.360), home runs (14) and RBIs (53). Anthony and relief pitcher Ben Beutel were selected to the all-conference second team.

First baseman Peyton Williams was a first-team all-league pick, as was Adam Mazur, who is Iowa’s second consecutive Big Ten Pitcher of the Year. Toronto Blue Jays minor leaguer Trenton Wallace was last year’s POY.

Pitcher Brody Brecht joined Anthony on the Big Ten All-Freshman Team.

Iowa (33-17 overall) finished in a three-way tie for second place in the Big Ten behind Maryland. It won six of seven to end the regular season, including taking three straight from Indiana last weekend.

“We ended on a good, positive note, sweeping Indiana,” Williams said. “So there is a lot of confidence heading into this. I think everyone is dialed back in, focusing on the next game.”

Winning it all, focusing on the next game.

Iowa is the tourney’s third seed, and has a 5 p.m. game to start things Wednesday against sixth-seeded Penn State (25-27). Second-seeded Rutgers and seventh-seeded Purdue follow.

The tourney schedule was changed Tuesday night because of expected rain Wednesday in Omaha. BTN is the TV channel for all the games.

Top-seeded Maryland and No. 8 Indiana play at 5, with fourth-seeded Michigan and fifth-seeded Illinois concluding the first day. This is a double-elimination affair, of sorts, though there’s a true, one-off championship game Sunday afternoon at 1.

The winner automatically qualifies for an NCAA regional next weekend. Iowa’s chances of securing an at-large regional berth is iffy, considering its official 55 RPI.

“From our point of view, it’s pretty simple,” said Iowa Coach Rick Heller. “The only way to guarantee yourself a shot at the NCAA tournament is to win this tournament. You increase your odds each time you are able to find a way to win a game. So the goal is pretty simple. I just hope we can take the momentum we have from (last) weekend over there and continue to play well, as we have been the last couple of months.”

“Being on the bubble, I’ve been there multiple times,” said Iowa infielder Izaya Fullard. “That’s something you can’t really control. You’ve got to focus on one game at a time. Our mindset going into this is we win the tournament, we’re in automatically. So take it one game at a time, keep winning. If we win a few games, I think that’ll show we belong there.”

Mazur will get the ball for Wednesday’s game, and if he’s efficient, could have a chance to pitch again in the tournament, especially Sunday. He went 7-2 with a 3.05 ERA in the regular season, pitching brilliantly with the exception of his final start, a game with a very strong wind blowing straight out in which he gave up nine runs in two innings.

“Looking to rebound in a big way, kind of just knowing that every pitcher gets roughed up sometimes,” he said. “I got that out of the way, and I was happy that it happened before the Big Ten tournament.”

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