“You always see the team that makes it (a deep run) has a guy that hasn’t thrown since April 15 that gets them four innings and saves the day,” said Coach Heller on Monday.
Tonight, Cam Baumann got them 5.2 innings and the Hawkeyes defeated Michigan 7-3 to force an if necessary game against the Wolverines with a place in the Big Ten Tournament Championship on the line.
“Cam kind of put us on his back, really proud of Cam tonight,” said Heller. “Did exactly what we needed him to do. Stepped up in a big-time game and pitched great for us.”
Baumann hasn’t had the senior season he was hoping for and came into the game having pitched just 15.1 innings on the year, but tonight he was fantastic for the Hawkeyes. He went 5.2 innings, allowing two runs on five hits, while striking out five and hitting three batters.
Things looked like they were going to go south in a hurry out of the gates, as Cam hit the first two batters of the game, but he struck out three of the next four batters to get out of the inning unscathed.
“I was struggling there at the beginning. I was rushing myself with my off-speed grips, so I didn’t get a really good grip on them when I was delivering,” said Baumann. “I stepped back and slowed it down a bit. Made sure I was ready to go when I delivered my pitch and that was the difference.”
The Hawkeyes got on the board in the fifth inning with a bases loaded walk drawn by Keaton Anthony. That was the only run Iowa was able to muster off of Michigan starter Chase Allen, as he matched the start put up by Baumann. Allen went 5.0 innings, allowing an unearned run on two hits, including four strikeouts and three walks.
The Wolverines went to the bullpen from there and the Hawks were able to cash in right away in the sixth inning. Kyle Huckstorf smoked a two-run triple in the right center gap off Noah Rennard to extend the lead to 3-0.
Michigan bounced back in the bottom of the sixth with a couple of hits off of Baumann. Ben Beutel came on to close out the inning, but the maize and blue got on the board. Jordan Rogers delivered a two-run single in front of the glove of a diving Keaton Anthony in right field, but Izaya Fullard was able to dash out to the ball and fire home to nab Ted Burton at the plate and preserve the Iowa lead.
“I originally thought Keaton was going to get there and make a nice diving catch and then it popped out. Just winds up with Izaya and he was able to get it in quick,” said catcher Cade Moss. “I had to take a couple steps to my right. Made a good pick and then was able to get back quickly and just get my glove right in from of the plate. He slid right into me.”
The Hawkeyes took control in the top of the seventh inning, as the Wolverines couldn’t find an arm in the bullpen to put up a zero. The first three batters reached base and set the table for a string of run scoring hits. Sam Petersen, Cade Moss and Kyle Huckstorf each delivered run scoring singles to push the Iowa lead to 7-2.
“That first game (against Penn State) was a fluke,” said Cade Moss. “We’re not that team and these last few games we’ve really shown how good of an offensive team we can be.”
“The last three games, when we have had pitches to hit and we’ve started to do that,” said Coach Heller. “We’re getting balance throughout the lineup, which is really good for this team. It can be top heavy at times, but the bottom part of the order has been really solid for us.”
The bottom half of the Iowa lineup collected six of the teams ten hits, as well as six of seven RBIs.
Jimmy Obertop hit a solo home run off of Beutel in the eighth inning to cut it to 7-3, but that was as close as Michigan would get. Connor Schultz came on from the bullpen and recorded the final six outs of the game to force the rematch set for Sunday.
“Really good team effort. Solid defensive game,” said Heller. “Connor came in and shut the door and that’s what we needed. We needed to find a way to get to tomorrow and we’ll figure out a way tomorrow.”
Izaya Fullard, Cade Moss and Kyle Huckstorf each collected two hits for the game, while Huckstorf led the team with three RBIs. The Hawkeyes have now collected 34 hits and 23 runs over the last three games of the tournament.
With the win, the Hawkeyes move to 36-18 on the season and improve to 20-8 against Big Ten teams. Iowa will face Michigan in a rematch tomorrow, with first pitch set for 1:00pm. Neither team has announced a pitcher, but it sounds like Iowa could be calling on a number of arms to do the job. A win against the Wolverines would send the Hawkeyes to the championship game and could potentially be enough to get them into the NCAA Tournament. The game will be televised on the Big Ten Network.
