OMAHA, Neb. – The University of Iowa baseball team defeated Michigan, 13-3, in eight innings in the opening round of the Big Ten tournament on Tuesday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field.
“Really proud of our guys and how they fought hard all day long,” said head coach Rick Heller. “The first five innings we hit some balls hard but didn’t get rewarded. We didn’t have some things go our way, but we didn’t play the victim and found a way to get it done. We kept to our plan, and finally broke through in the fifth.”
Marcus Morgan got the start for the Hawkeyes throwing four innings and facing two batters in the fifth. He stuck out three and allowed one earned run.
Jack Whitlock entered with runners on second and third and after walking the first batter struck out three in a row to escape the jam. Whitlock threw two innings, giving up one run. He improves to 7-0 on the season.
“Marcus didn’t have his cleanest start, but he was able to fight his way out of jams,” said Heller. “Jack had an extremely gutsy performance coming in and striking out the side with the bases loaded really shifted the momentum. Then the offense responded with six runs in the bottom of the inning with some big two-out hits.”
Brayden Frazier led the way for the Hawkeyes with a 3-for-5 day at the plate. Frazier hit a grand slam in the fifth inning as part of the six-run frame for Iowa. Sam Petersen was 2-for-4 with a three-run home run.
Sam Hojnar and Kyle Huckstorf each tallied two RBIs.
The Hawkeyes outhit the Wolverines 14-4, and the Hawkeye pitchers fanned 10 Michigan batters.
OF NOTE
- Iowa moves to 40-13 on the season and 16-9 in Big Ten play.
- This is the fifth time in program history that Iowa has reached 40 wins.
- The Hawkeyes have hit nine grand slams this season.
- Frazier’s grand slam was the first grand slam in the Big Ten Tournament since 2017, and the first grand slam in Big Ten Tournament history at Charles Schwab Field.
- The Hawkeyes have scored 10+ runs 19 times this season and are 19-0 in those games.
- Iowa has ended seven games early via run rule this season.
UP NEXT
The Hawkeyes face the winner of No. 2 seeded Indiana and No. 7 seeded Illinois on Thursday at 2 p.m. (CT).