The Iowa bats meant business today, with lots of hits, baserunners and runs.

Nothing Northwestern did could stop the Hawkeyes, as they scored in seven of the eight innings they came to the plate.

The Hawks totaled 15 runs on the day, which is their second most all season, on their way to a 15-4 victory on Sunday afternoon.

Cam Baumann was on the mound for Iowa, and he put together yet another quality start, going 6 innings, allowing just two runs on five hits, while striking out four. Cam has done a great job over his last five starts, putting together quality start after quality start. “I’ve had the most confidence on the mound and I can throw every pitch with the most confidence,” said Baumann on his performance. His first two starts of the season were rocky, “It was hard mentally,” but right now he is throwing among the best in the conference.

After Baumann, it was a mix of Ty Langenberg, Tyson James and Will Semb to finish off the blowout win. The three went 3 innings, allowing two runs on three hits, while striking out five.

Baumann allowed the first two batters of the game to reach base and Northwestern got a sacrifice fly from Michael Trautwein to give the Cats an early 1-0. However, Cam Baumann would answer with four straight scoreless innings and gave Iowa the opportunity offensively to take over.

The Hawkeyes would take the lead in the second inning, with a Zeb Adreon single and Dylan Nedved sacrifice fly. Then in the third, Izaya Fullard would put Iowa up 3-1, with an RBI single. The runs just kept coming in bunches after that, with three in the fourth inning on a Ben Norman double with the bases loaded. In the fifth inning, Iowa Zeb Adreon would plate two more runs with a single and then in the sixth, Zeb would get another RBI single. Matthew Sosa would get an RBI single later in the inning to extend the lead to 12-2.

“I could tell guys were dialed in; they were ready to play. That was a great sign after a tough loss yesterday,” said Coach Heller on the team’s offensive performance.

That still was not it for the Hawkeye bats, as Peyton Williams would add a solo home run in the seventh and Ben Norman would add a two-run double in the eighth inning to put Iowa up 15-4.

The stat sheet was full for the Hawkeyes, as eight out of nine starters reached base, including three hits from Ben Norman and four hits from Zeb Adreon. In total Iowa smacked 18 hits and had 26 baserunners on the day. “It was really just having a good approach, looking the other way…we knew they (Northwestern pitchers) would really hit their spots,” said Zeb Adreon on the team’s approach at the plate.

Coach Heller also brought up Ben Norman’s performance at the plate today saying, “I thought Norman had a really good game today and his approach didn’t change…I thought Ben was really instrumental (in the win).”

Iowa has now won 13 of their last 16 games and every time the team has a below average performance, they seem to come right back the next game with a locked in mentality. Coach Heller spoke about this saying, “It’s just how we go about our business. It’s what we like to think our program is about…we’re not gonna get caught up in the ups and downs, the peaks in valleys. Just try to play consistent baseball day-in-day-out.”

The Hawkeyes move to 17-11 on the season and will finish up the four game pod series tomorrow vs Northwestern at 4:05pm.

Notes

- Ben Norman extended his on base streak to 16 games

- Matthew Sosa got hit by pitch twice today, bringing his season total to 17

- Cam Baumann has put together five straight quality starts.

- The Hawkeye offense scored multiple runs in five innings