Fall Baseball Report

-Monday Scrimmage-

A short 4 inning scrimmage kicked off the week of practice, with the teams tying at one run apiece. Andy Nelson (Soph) and Brett McCleary (rSr) hit solo home runs for their respective teams.

On the mound for the black squad, Adam Mazur (Soph) faced the minimum, issuing a walk, but getting a double play to end the frame. He has now struck out six batters in three innings of work. Iowa Central transfer Ben DeTaeye (rSoph) looked really solid in his inning of work going 1-2-3, while recording two strikeouts.

Cam Baumann (rSr) allowed NDSU transfer Ben Tallman (rSoph) to lead off with a single, but Baumann would strike out three in a row after to turn in a zero on the scoreboard. Will Christophersen (rSoph) retired two of four batters face, while allowing the home run to McCleary.

For the gold team, Marcus Morgan (Fr), Dylan Nedved (rSr) and Jared Simpson (rJr) worked scoreless innings, however all three pitchers allowed at least two runners on base.

-Friday Scrimmage-

This one was about an hour long pitching dominated scrimmage. The two sides mustered just three hits and five baserunners over three innings. DJ Heck (rSoph), Will Mulflur (Soph) and Brayden Frazier (rSoph) had the three hits.

Alec Nigut (rFr), Tyson James (Soph) and Ben Beutel (rSr) all looked really good for the gold squad. Tyson James hit one batter, but struck out two, while Ben Beutel struck out the side around a two out double. James got his fastball up to 89.3 mph.

For the black squad, Weston Fulk (Fr), Keaton Anthony (rFr) and Chas Wheatley (Fr) all worked around a baserunner in their outings. Fulk struck out one and got a ground ball double play. Anthony struck out two batters, while reaching 90.3 with his fastball. Wheatley walked the leadoff batter, but retired three straight after.

-Saturday vs Iowa Western-

Just over 6 hours, 16 innings, 29 pitchers and 43 total runs scored. Saturday was a lot of baseball.

The Reivers showed that they were capable of playing good baseball and scorched Iowa’s first three pitchers for 11 runs, building an 11-2 lead after five innings. Adam Mazur (rSoph) started on the mound and allowed four runs on four hits and an error, but bounced back with a scoreless second inning.

Luke Llewellyn (rSoph) followed Mazur and allowed four runs on two hits, one walk and an error, including Dylan Robertson’s second home run of the game for Iowa Western. Llewellyn, like Mazur, threw a scoreless second inning of work.

Cam Baumann (rSr) would allow three runs on three hits and a walk in the fifth inning, which allowed the Reivers to take a nine-run lead on the Hawkeyes. Sometimes it just isn’t your day on the mound, which was the case for the first three Iowa pitchers, but despite the slow start, Hawkeye pitchers and hitters fought back.

Iowa would score 27 runs over the next nine innings, while the pitching staff held the Reivers to just three runs in the last 11 innings. Brayden Frazier (rSoph), Peyton Williams (rSoph), Brett McCleary (rSr) and Sam Hojnar (rSoph) all picked up two hits on the day. McCleary hit his third home run of the fall, while Alec Nigut (rFr) and Sam Petersen (Fr) both hit their first home runs.

As a whole the team was very patient at the plate, striking out 11 times, while walking a crazy 31 times. Connor McCaffery (rJr) had multiple good at bats and walked five times in six trips to the plate.

Back to the pitching side of things, Marcus Morgan (Fr) and Ben DeTaeye (rSoph) both threw two innings. They each had a quick inning and an inning where they had to work around some baserunners, but they combined for four scoreless innings. DeTaeye has been very solid in four outings this fall.

Dylan Nedved (rSr) had his best inning of the fall, as he struck out the side all looking in the 10th inning. Jared Simpson (rJr) struck out the side in the 13th inning. Both pitchers had had uneven performances so far, but looked good Saturday.

Will Christophersen (rSoph) and Jacob Henderson (rSoph) finished off the last two innings of the game retiring six of seven, including two strikeouts from Christophersen.

As the rest of fall practice continues, we will continue to watch what players will try to carve out roles on the pitching staff, as well as what fielders may be looking to sneak into the lineups next year.

The Hawkeyes will have an intrasquad scrimmage next week, before taking on Kirkwood CC on Friday afternoon at 3:00pm at Duane Banks Field.

The Black & Gold World Series is set for October 18-20 at Duane Banks Field.