The weather in Corpus Christi was not what you would expect for Texas, however that did not slow the Iowa Baseball team’s hot start this afternoon.

Adam Mazur was dialed in again and gave way to Dylan Nedved late to nail down the 3-1 weekend opening victory over Pepperdine.

“I am happy with how we played,” said Head Coach Rick Heller. “Adam went out and gave us a great start, he filled up the strike zone, which is what you need to do on a cold, wind blowing in day.”

Mazur made his second start in a Hawkeye uniform and was just as good as he was seven days ago. Through six innings, Adam retired 17/19 batters faced, but ran into his first adversity of the season in the top of the eighth inning.

A Greg Mehlhaff leadoff walk, as well as a Connor Bradshaw single gave Pepperdine two runners on and just one out. But, the Waves best threat of the day off Mazur was quickly extinguished with a 4-6-3 double play ball. He would go 7.2 innings, striking out nine and walking two. Pepperdine managed just three hits off of the sophomore.

Meanwhile, Brandon Llewellyn, of Pepperdine, was tasked with trying to keep up with zeros on the scoreboard, but Iowa was able to strike in the third inning. Kyle Huckstorf got into scoring position, after a walk and a stolen base, before a Michael Seegers RBI single brought him home.

The Hawkeyes extended their lead off of Llewellyn to 2-0 in the sixth, with an RBI single from DH Ty Snep. Llewellyn kept the Waves in it, going 5.2 innings, allowing just two runs on six hits.

Despite scoring just two runs off the Pepperdine starter, Coach Heller was pleased with how his team performed at the plate saying, “Our guys were really dialed in and disciplined. We didn’t chase Llewellyn’s slider many times…That was a big key and we grinded out some at-bats.”

Iowa was able to scratch another run across the plate in the seventh inning, this time off of reliever Tyler Murrah. Iowa Western transfer Kyle Huckstorf started a two out rally, when he knocked one into the right-center gap and legged out his first triple of the season. Michael Seegers followed with his second RBI single of the day to push the Iowa lead to 3-0.

Dylan Nedved was called on to nail down a four out save, but ran into some trouble in the ninth inning. A hit by pitch, followed by a walk allowed the Waves to get some traffic on the bases with no outs. Connor Bradshaw delivered a one out RBI single to cut in the Hawkeyes lead, but Nedved tightened up after and struck out back-to-back batters to preserve the 3-1 victory.

“When Dylan came in, he was sharp for one out in the eighth and then struggled with his command and got into a pretty good jam…Like Dylan normally does, he settled down and got us out of the inning,” said Heller.

Michael Seegers finished the day 3/4 with a pair of RBI singles, while Keaton Anthony continued his hot start to the season, going 2/3 with two singles and a walk. Kyle Huckstorf was 1/2 with a walk and scored two of the Hawkeyes three runs on the day.

Rick Heller’s squad will be back in action tomorrow, as they take on the Islanders of Texas A&M Corpus Christi. The Hawkeyes are seeking their first 5-0 start since 1981, when they started the season 6-0. The game is at 4:00pm and will be streamed on FloBaseball.

Notes

- First time since 1981 that Iowa has held opponents to 2 runs or less in their first four games of the season.

- Peyton Williams and Keaton Anthony have reached base in all four games this season

- Adam Mazur has struck out 18 batters in 13.2 innings

- Seeking their best start since 1981