Game Notes -- at Maryland

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THIS WEEK
• The University of Iowa baseball team travels east for its final regular-season series at Maryland from May 16-18. 
• Thursday’s series opener and Friday’s game two each will begin at 5:30 p.m. (CT). Saturday’s series finale has a 1 p.m. first pitch. 
• All three games will be played at Bob “Turtle” Smith Stadium. 

FOLLOW ALONG
• All games will be streamed live on BTN Plus on BTN2Go. It is a paid subscription service. 
• All Iowa games will also be available via the Hawkeye Radio Network with Zach Mackey on the call. The games can be heard on Hawkeye All-Access/TuneIn Radio.
Thursday: KMJM 1360 AM in Cedar Rapids, KDEC-AM 1240 in Decorah.
Friday: KMJM 1360 AM in Cedar Rapids; KKFD 95.9 FM in Fairfield, WDBQ FM 107.5 in Dubuque.
Saturday: AM 800 KXIC Iowa City, KMJM 1360 AM in Cedar Rapids; KKFD 95.9 FM in Fairfield, WDBQ FM 107.5 in Dubuque.
• Live stats are available on hawkeyesports.com and fans can follow along on Twitter @UIBaseball.

LEADING OFF
• Iowa’s 7-5 victory over Michigan State on May 10 secured the program its sixth straight 30-win season under head coach Rick Heller. It is Iowa’s longest stretch of 30-win seasons since 1979-85. 
• The Hawkeyes are 9-3 against top-30 opponents (at No. 19 Oklahoma State, vs. No. 23 Illinois, vs. No. 30 Nebraska, and vs. No. 18 UC Irvine). 
• Iowa dropped its first home series and first in the last seven weekends against Michigan State from May 10-12. Iowa’s other series losses have come on the road — at Indiana and Evansville — along with a split at Hawaii.  
• Iowa finished the home slate 19-7 at Duane Banks Field this season, running its home record to 91-27 since 2015.  
• Junior Grant Judkins leads the Big Ten with a 2.18 ERA, having allowed two or fewer earned runs in 10 of his 13 starts. Judkins’ eight quality starts are tied for the team lead with senior Cole McDonald. 
• McDonald is undefeated (3-0, 2.84) in seven Big Ten starts, where he ranks in the top 14 in ERA, innings, and strikeouts during league action. 
• Redshirt junior Grant Leonard (2-1, 1.82 ERA), who is on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason List, is a perfect 13-for-13 in save opportunities, which are the second-most in the Big Ten and tied for the fifth-most in the nation. Leonard is one save shy of breaking Iowa’s single-season saves record (Kevin Lee, 2010), while his 15 career saves are the fifth-most in Hawkeye history. 
• Senior outfielder Chris Whelan is second in the Big Ten in on-base percentage (.455), tied for third in walks (33), and tied for fifth in hit-by-pitches (12). 
• Austin Martin (.311), Izaya Fullard (.310), and Chris Whelan (.301) are all hitting over .300 to put three Hawkeyes in the top-20 of batting average in the Big Ten. 
• Iowa has 15 come-from-behind victories this season with four walk-off winners. 
• Iowa is 18-7 in games decided by two runs or less and 17-3 when scoring first. 

QUICK HITTERS
• The Hawkeye offense has the third-best batting average (.267) in the Big Ten and third-best on-base percentage (.364). 
• The Hawkeyes have recorded 22 games of 10+ hits. Iowa’s seasons highs in hits (19) and runs (18) came against Evansville on March 9. 
 • Iowa’s 54 stolen bases are the fourth-most in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes only swiped 39 bags last season. Ben Norman leads Iowa with 11 steals and Tanner Wetrich has eight, while seven other Hawkeyes have swiped at least three bags. 
• Iowa’s 42 double plays turned rank second-most in the Big Ten and 45th nationally.
• Junior catcher Austin Martin’s team-leading .311 batting average is 13th-best in the conference and tops amongst Big Ten catchers. Martin leads Iowa in hits (56), multi-hit games (17), and multi-RBI games (8). 
• Junior outfielder Ben Norman, who is the only Hawkeye to start all 49 games, leads Iowa in home runs (6), RBIs (32), and stolen bases (11).

SCOUTING MARYLAND
• The Terrapins are 25-27 overall and 9-12 in Big Ten play, sitting in a three-way tie for eighth place in the league standings.  
•  Maryland, who is 8-15 at home this season, has dropped three of its last four series — vs. Ohio State, vs. Michigan, and at Minnesota.  The Terps won two of three games at Penn State from April 26-27.
• The Terps are ninth in the Big Ten with a .245 batting average, last with a 5.53 team ERA, and 10th in fielding percentage (.967).  
• Randy Bednar is the only Maryland player hitting above .300, sitting with a .309 average with 67 hits, 10 home runs, 19 doubles, and 49 RBIs.  Bednard ranks in the top is tied for the team lead in home runs with Maxwell Costes.
• The Terps’ Friday starter — RHP Hunter Parsons — is leading the Big Ten with nine victories.  He is 9-3 with a 3.74 ERA with 70 strikeouts over a league-most 89 innings.  Maryland will start RHP Zach Thompson (2-6, 5.28 ERA) and LHP Tyler Blohm (1-1, 3.27 ERA) in games two and three.

SERIES RESULTS
• The Hawkeyes are 6-2 all-time versus Maryland. 
• Iowa’s only two series against Maryland were in 2015 and ’16 with Iowa taking two-of-three games both times. 
• The Hawkeyes’ other two wins over the Terrapins have come in the Big Ten Tournament in 2016 in the semifinals and a first round game in 2017. 

30 WINS X 6
With Iowa’s 7-5 win over Michigan State on May 10, Iowa reached the 30-win plateau for the sixth straight season. It is the program’s longest stretch since posting seven straight 30-win seasons from 1979-85.  

2014: 30-23
2015: 41-18 (2nd-most wins all-time)
2016: 30-26
2017: 39-22 (5th-most wins all-time)
2018: 33-20
2019: 30-19

FULLARD’S HEATING UP
• Sophomore infielder Izaya Fullard is on a career-long and team-best 18-game on-base streak. Fullard’s seven-game hitting streak is also tied for the team lead with Chris Whelan.
• In his last 10 games, Fullard is hitting a team-best .395 (15-for-38) with five extra-base hits and a team-leading nine RBIs. He had his first career four-hit game in Iowa’s series-opening victory over Michigan State on May 10.
• The North Liberty, Iowa, native leads the team in runs scored (32), is second on the team in batting average (.310), RBIs (30) and hits (54), and is tied for second in home runs (5) and extra-base hits (14).
• Fullard became the first Hawkeye this season to hit two home runs in the same game against No. 18 UC Irvine on May 3.  He has hit safely in 37 games and reached safely in 46 contests this season.

BIG TEN RACE
• If the Big Ten Tournament started today, Iowa would be a six-seed facing third-seeded Illinois.
• The Hawkeyes fell to sixth place at 12-9 after dropping its first conference series since the Big Ten opening weekend at Indiana. 
• In front of Iowa sits Illinois, Nebraska, and Minnesota at 13-8 with Michigan (15-5) and Indiana (14-7) owning the top two spots. 
• Rounding out the top eight is Northwestern (10-11) and Rutgers (9-11), with Ohio State (9-12) and Maryland (9-12) looming. 

THE HAWKEYES ARE…
• 18-7 in games decided by two runs or less.
• 17-3 when scoring first.
• 25-6 when allowing five or fewer runs.
• 17-2 when scoring 6+ runs and 7-0 when scoring 10+ runs.
• 19-3 when leading after six innings and 5-16 when trailing after six innings. 

HELLER JOINS IOWA’S 200-CLUB
• In Iowa’s 8-7 win over Western Illinois on May 1, head coach Rick Heller became the fourth Hawkeye to reach 200 wins at the University of Iowa.
• It took Heller just six seasons to amass 200 wins, winning at least 30 games in each of his first five seasons, including a career-best 41 wins in 2015.
• Heller is only seven wins from 900 career victories. 

FRIDAY NIGHT STARTER COLE MCDONALD
• In 13 total starts this season, Friday night starter Cole McDonald’s ERA sits at 3.55  with a team-leading 70 strikeouts. 
• In six Big Ten starts, McDonald is 3-0 with a 2.84 ERA, striking out 44 in 44 1/3 innings.  McDonald’s ERA is 14th-best in league play, while his 37 strikeouts are tied for the ninth most. 
• In four starts against ranked opponents, McDonald is 1-0 with a 2.88 ERA, while holding hitters to a .242 average. 
• The senior from New Hampton, Iowa, went 1-3 in five nonconference starts with a 5.47 ERA.
• McDonald had a streak of five straight quality starts and is tied for the team lead with eight total. 

BACK AT THE TOP
• Senior Chris Whelan saw his name appear in five different spots in the Hawkeyes’ batting order before returning to the top of the lineup April 2 against Clarke.   Whelan was Iowa’s primary leadoff hitter in 2018.
• In 24 games since returning to the leadoff role, Whelan is hitting .363 (33-for-91) with a .474 on-base percentage, both of which lead the team. Whelan was hitting .210 (13-for-62) with a .430 OBP in 25 games not in the leadoff spot.
• With two mult-hit games in the Michigan State series, is above .300 for the first time this season and has risen 101 points since March 26 when his average dipped to a season-low .200.
• The Hawkeyes are 15-9 since Whelan’s return to the leadoff role and Iowa has averaged 5.6 runs in those games, compared to 4.9 when he was not batting leadoff. 
• Whelan leads the team in on-base percentage (.455), walks (33), hit-by-pitches (12), and doubles (12). 

LEONARD LOCKS DOWN THE NINTH
• Redshirt junior Grant Leonard has relished in Iowa’s closer role, going a perfect 13-for-13 in save opportunities, to earn a spot on the NCBWA Stopper of the Year Midseason List. 
• The junior right-hander has a team-leading 13 saves, which are the second-most in the Big Ten and tied for the fifth-most in the nation. Only four closers in the nation have more saves than Leonard
• Leonard’s 13 saves this season are tied for the single season school record with Kevin Lee (2010), while his 15 career saves are the fifth-most in school history.
• He recorded his second save of 2+ innings in Iowa’s 1-0 win over No. 18 UC Irvine. 
• Leonard’s 14-inning scoreless streak was snapped against Western Illinois on May 1. Still, he owns a 1.82 ERA in 24 appearances, spanning 29.2 innings with 30 strikeouts and nine walks. 

IOWA SINGLE-SEASON SAVES 
1.    Kevin Lee (2010)    13
    Grant Leonard (2019)    13

IOWA CAREER SAVES
1.    Kurt Belger (1993-97)    22
2.    Tim Gudex (2004-06)    20
3.    Reed Pawelk (2000-03)    18
4.    Nick Hibbing (2012-15)    17
5.    Grant Leonard (2017-pres.)    15

JUNIOR GRANT JUDKINS… 
• leads the Big Ten with a 2.18 ERA.
• has posted eight quality starts (vs. Marshall, vs. CSUN, at Indiana, vs. Illinois, at Purdue, vs. No. 30 Nebraska, at Ohio State, vs. Michigan State) in 13 chances. 
• has allowed three or more earned runs just three times in 13 starts.
• pitched five or more innings in 12 of 13 starts along with four starts of seven or more innings. 
• ranks ninth in the Big Ten, allowing 7.12 hits per nine innings.
• owns a .218 batting average against, which is the best amongst Iowa’s starting pitchers and tied for ninth in the Big Ten.

SOPHOMORE CAM BAUMANN…
• has posted three of his four wins in Big Ten play, going 3-2 with a 5.45 ERA in seven league starts.  
• earned his fourth win of the season over No. 18 UC Irvine, allowing zero runs in five innings. 
• has two quality starts in wins over Illinois and Rutgers. 
• has two games with seven or more strikeouts — vs. Cal State Northridge (8) and Nebraska (7).

SHER NAMED BACK-TO-BACK B1G FRESHMAN OF THE WEEK
• Freshman infielder Brendan Sher became the first Hawkeye ever to earn two consecutive Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors on April 29 and May 6. 
• Overall, Sher is hitting .286 (20-for-70) with four doubles, a home run, and a .363 on-base percentage in 19 starts around the infield. 
• Sher is one of three Hawkeyes to earn Big Ten weekly awards. Grant Judkins was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on February 18 and Zeb Adreon was named Big Ten Player of the Week on April 28. 

BACK END OF THE BULLPEN
The Hawkeye bullpen has held opposing hitters to a .252 average over 191.2 innings with 179 strikeouts.  The unit is 16-6 with a 5.17 ERA this season.
• Grant Leonard has converted all 13 of his saves, which leads the team and are the second-most in the Big Ten. Trace Hoffman has two saves, while Jason Foster and Trenton Wallace each have one. 
• Hoffman (5-2, 5.88 ERA) has been one of Iowa’s go-to guys out of the bullpen, leading the team with 27 appearances, which are the third-most in the Big Ten and 34th-most nationally. Hoffman has 26 strikeouts in 33 2/3 innings to only six walks. Hoffman has allowed only nine inherited runners to score in 30 chances. 
• Jason Foster (1-0, 6.00 ERA) and Kyle Shimp (2-1, 7.04 ERA) have 20 or more appearances out of the bullpen. 

JENKS MAGIC
Senior outfielder Justin Jenkins was Iowa’s hero in its 5-4 walk-off in 12 innings over Milwaukee. The Terre Haute, Indiana, native hit Iowa’s first walk-off home run since Tyler Cropley’s in 2018 over No. 7 Michigan to win the game. Jenkins’ heroics started in the top of the 12th by preserving a 4-4 tie after making a catch in shallow center field and firing home to gun down a Milwaukee base runner at the plate to complete the inning-ending double play. 

NOW THAT’S A 2-OUT RALLY
During Iowa’s 17-9 victory over No. 30 Nebraska on April 20, the Hawkeyes scored eight runs in the fifth inning and five more in the sixth — all with two outs.  Iowa had 16 two-out RBIs in the game, hit .565 with two outs, and had a .529 average with runners in scoring position in the game. 
• The eight-run inning was Iowa’s largest of the season and the 17 total runs were the most scored in a Big Ten game since beating Purdue, 17-5, on May 17, 2014.

MCCAFFERY’S DOUBLE DUTY
Redshirt freshman multi-sport athlete Connor McCaffery made his Iowa debut against Cal-State Northridge on March 16 as a pinch hitter.  McCaffery made his first career start in game three of the series, finishing 3-for-4 with two doubles.
• McCaffery was a reserve guard for the Iowa men’s basketball team that nearly completed a 25-point comeback win over second-seeded Tennessee on March 24, but fell in overtime in the Round of 32 of the NCAA Tournament. McCaffery finished the season averaging 4.4 points and 3.0 assists in 34 games. 
• McCaffery is believed to be the first Hawkeye since the late 1980s to play both basketball and baseball at Iowa since Randy Norton (79-82), Todd Berkenpas (82-85) Tom Norman (1979), and Kurt Stange (1983-86).
• Basketball-baseball combinations are rare.  A select few who have done it recently are Notre Dame’s Pat Connaughton and Washington State’s Mark Hendrickson as pitchers.  Other notables are Chris Young (Princeton), Kenny Lofton (Arizona), and Tony Gwynn (San Diego State).

MASTERS OF THE MIDWEEK
• Iowa went 7-2 in midweek contests this season to move to 32-7 in midweek contests since the start of 2016. 

DON’T COUNT ‘EM OUT
The Hawkeyes have posted 15 come-from-behind victories this season, including four in walk-off fashion.
• Trailing 3-1 through three innings, Iowa came back against Western Illinois, scoring four runs in the fourth inning and three in the sixth to win 8-7.
• Iowa’s first walk-off home run since 2018 came off the bat of senior Justin Jenkins in the bottom of the 12th against Milwaukee. It was Jenkins’ second career home run that lifted Iowa to a 5-4 win. 
• Junior Zeb Adreon added his name to the list of walk-off heroes with a single in the bottom of the ninth to beat No. 30 Nebraska in game one of the series. 
• Junior Grant Judkins had a pinch-hit, RBI double, giving the Hawkeyes a 5-4 walk-off win over Cal-State Northridge on March 17.  Iowa trailed 4-3 heading into the ninth.
• Iowa posted its second walk-off win of the season against Chicago State.  Trailing 4-3 entering the ninth, Austin Martin’s RBI double tied the score at four and Ben Norman’s fly ball to center field was misplayed, giving the Hawkeyes their 11th win.
• The Hawkeyes have overcome deficits to win 44 games since the start of the 2017 season and posted 11 walk-offs.  Twenty-four of those victories have come with Iowa trailing or being tied entering or through seven innings.  Sixteen have come in the final at-bat.

BANKS MAGIC
• The Hawkeyes are 91-27 at home since the start of the 2015 season.  
• Iowa won 20 games last season, the second-most in a single-season in school history, trailing only the 22 wins in 1977.
• Iowa has 16 walk-off victories at Duane Banks Field since the start of 2015.

FOLLOW THE HAWKEYES
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