Adam. Mazur.
If you missed the Friday series opener between Rutgers and Iowa, you missed a show from the redshirt sophomore out of Woodbury, Minnesota.
Mazur silenced a Scarlet Knights lineup that came into the day averaging 9.5 runs per game and the Hawkeyes picked up the 4-1 victory to kickoff the weekend in Piscataway.
The Hawkeyes jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the second inning on a solo home run from Brendan Sher. It was his second home run of the season and a good sign in his first start back from a hamstring injury.
Rutgers answered in the bottom of the inning with back-to-back two out extra base hits to tie the game at 1. An RBI triple from Garrett Callaghan scored Mike Nyisztor, but little did the Scarlet Knights know, that was all they were going to get.
“After the second inning when we scored one and I wasn’t able to get the shutdown inning we needed, it lit a fire underneath me that I needed to keep going and push through,” said Mazur.
He was outstanding, going 8.0 innings, allowing just one run on six hits, while striking out 11 and once again walking zero. He retired 16 of the last 18 batters he faced, and he has now gone 16.0 straight innings without issuing a walk.
“Adam set the tone for us. They got some decent swings in the first two innings, but after that, those were limited the rest of the game,” said Coach Rick Heller. “He pounded the zone. It’s hard not to play well behind a guy that goes out and was efficient as Adam was today and as dominant as he was today. I cannot say enough about him setting the tone in the series.”
“Getting ahead and mixing and matching pitches was key, said Mazur, as he faced just one 3 ball count and seven 2 ball counts against 30 batters faced. “My curveball felt great today, which I hadn’t used too much this year. It was nice to get that, and the slider felt good.”
At the plate, Iowa battled against Rutgers ace Jared Kollar. A handful of long at bats pushed the graduate seniors pitch count up to 74 after just 3.0 innings. In the fourth, Izaya Fullard led off the inning with a double down the left field line to get into scoring position. Ben Tallman and Sam Petersen followed with fly balls to get Fullard across and make it 2-1 Hawkeyes.
Kollar exited the game after just 4.1 innings, allowing two runs on four hits, while striking out four and walking three. His pitch count ended up at 104, which is a testimony to how locked in the Iowa batters were. Michael Seegers in particular, saw 22 pitches in three at bats against Kollar.
“We did a tremendous job grinding out at-bats and getting Kollar’s pitch count up,” said Heller. “We stuck to our plan, but didn’t get as many clutch hits as we would like, but the at-bats were awesome all day, battling, grinding, and working pitch counts.”
Despite Mazur rolling through the Scarlet Knights lineup, the Hawkeyes wanted a couple of insurance runs to make things comfortable and they got it in the eighth inning. An error by SS Danny DiGeorgio allowed Will Mulflur to reach base, which set the table for Izaya Fullard, who blasted a two-run home run to make it 4-1 Iowa off reliever Ben Gorski.
Dylan Nedved came on for the save in the ninth inning and sat down the Rutgers batters 1-2-3 on eight pitches to secure the series opening victory.
The Iowa offense mustered just five hits, including two by Izaya Fullard, but five batters drew walks, including a pair by Peyton Williams. Rutgers pitchers were forced to throw 178 pitches over 9.0 innings, which is an average of 19.8 pitches per inning.
With the win, the Hawkeyes move to 22-12 on the season and 7-3 in Big Ten play. They jump up 11 spots to #64 in the current RPI rankings and will look to clinch the series tomorrow with Connor Schultz on the mound. Rutgers will send Hartford grad transfer Nathan Florence to the mound. First pitch is set for 12:00pm and the game will once again be streamed on BTN+.
