For the last couple of months, we have been piecing together the baseball schedule off of other team’s schedule releases, but today, the puzzle was completed. Iowa Baseball announced their full slate for the 2023 season, including three early season tournaments. The Hawkeyes finished last season with a 36-19 record, but came up just short of the NCAA Tournament. With that, let’s dive into the 2023 schedule.
In Big Ten play, the Hawkeyes will not face Rutgers, Illinois, Purdue or Michigan. Last season, Iowa did not face Maryland, Ohio State, Northwestern or Penn State.
FEBRUARY
The Hawkeyes kick off the season down in Port Charlotte, Florida for the Snowbird Classic. They will open on Friday, February 17th against Indiana State, before playing Quinnipiac on Saturday and wrapping up with Indiana State again on Sunday. The Sycamores finished with a 26-22 record last year, while Quinnipiac was 15-33. The matchups against ISU provide some intrigue as Rick Heller spent 2010-2013 as head coach of the Sycamores program.
The Hawkeyes will head over to Texas for the Karbach Round Rock Classic from Feb 24-26, where they will take on Sam Houston State, LSU and Kansas State. The match-up against LSU could be argued as the biggest game of the season in terms of trying to get a resume building win. The Tigers went 40-22 last season and are expected to be a top five team in 2023.
Iowa will finish up the opening month with a midweek game on February 28th, but the opponent is not yet determined.
MARCH
The month of March opens with the previously reported South Alabama Invitational. Iowa will face Southern, South Alabama and Pepperdine in Mobile, AL. The host Jaguars finished last season with a 31-23 record.
There is another midweek game with an undetermined opponent set for March 7th before the Hawkeyes travel to Lubbock for the return trip of a home and home series with Texas Tech. The weekend will be a rare Friday, Saturday, Monday series. The Red Raiders finished 39-22 last season and again will be a good opportunity for Iowa to add to their resume.
The two home weekend series in the month will be against South Dakota State (17th-19th) and Western Michigan (24th-26th). The Jackrabbits were 20-23 last year, while WMU was 18-36. The midweek match-ups are the usual opponents, including St Thomas, Grand View and a trip to Illinois State.
APRIL
The Big Ten conference slate begins with the biggest home series of the season against the Maryland Terrapins. The Terps were 48-14 a year ago and hosted an NCAA regional. They are expected to be a top 25 squad again in 2023.
The rest of the month includes three series on the road against Indiana, Minnesota and Penn State. They will also travel to Bradley and Illinois-Chicago for midweek contests. The lone home series after the first week of the month is Nebraska. The Hawkeyes will welcome Milwaukee, Bradley and Western Illinois for midweek contests.
MAY
The Hawkeyes will play eight of 11 games in the final month of the season at Duane Banks Field, including eight in a row to begin the month. Iowa will host home series against Ohio State and Michigan State before traveling to Northwestern for the last series of the regular season. Illinois-Chicago and Illinois State will travel to Iowa City for midweek games.
The Big Ten Tournament is set for May 24-29 at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska. The top eight teams in the conference standings make it to the conference tournament.
Final Thought
The Hawkeyes are set to play just nine games against teams that finished in the top 100 of the RPI last season, while they will play 22 games against teams that finished in the top 150. Last season, Iowa played 23 against the top 100 and 35 against the top 150.
While adding Maryland to the schedule is a boost, dropping Illinois, Rutgers and Michigan from the slate could lead to an overall drop in the difficulty of the conference slate. The four new teams on the Big Ten schedule combined to go 119-100 (.543), while the four teams left off of this year’s schedule went 138-84 (.622).
The upcoming season will not be much different than any other Iowa Baseball season. There will be several chances to add big wins to the resume, but there will be plenty of games that could quickly derail the season if they lose too many of them.
