Despite an impressive effort to battle through the bottom half of the bracket, the 2023 baseball season came to a close for Iowa on Sunday night, with an 11-8 loss to Indiana State in the regional final.
Though that loss stung, there was still plenty to unpack from Iowa's first NCAA Regional appearance in six years. Here are nine takeaways from Iowa's four-game trip to the Terre Haute Regional.
I: Iowa's Best Shot to Win the Regional Was Lost on Saturday Night
Officially, Iowa was not eliminated from the NCAA Regional until the Hawkeyes' second, decisive loss to Indiana State on Sunday night. But Iowa's fate was more or less sealed by the end of the day Saturday.
Yes, even after losing to the Sycamores in the regional semifinal on Saturday, Iowa did technically have a clear path to win the Regional: just win three games in a row -- an elimination game against North Carolina and then two games against Indiana State, one on Sunday night and a second on Monday.
While it was clear what Iowa needed to do to win the NCAA Regional, the Hawkeyes' ability to do so was massively compromised by Saturday's loss to Indiana State. Winning three games in a row -- against good teams, no less -- is enough of a challenge; doing so without two top starting pitchers makes that challenge even more daunting. (Not to mention playing four additional innings in an elimination game thanks to another late blown save.)
If Iowa had been able to avoid that disastrous eighth inning on Saturday night and hold on for the victory, the Hawkeyes would have been in prime position to win the Regional. Iowa would have only needed to win one more game (with two chances to do so), with a full day's rest before the regional final (while facing a team that would have had to deplete itself to get to that point). And they would have had Ty Langenberg, who struck out six batters and allowed four runs on seven hits and four walks in his elimination game start against North Carolina, available to pitch that game.
Ultimately, the blueprint for Iowa to win the NCAA Regional was to go 3-0 in the Regional and rely on strong starting pitching to carry them to those wins. Playing more than three games would require making use of some pitchers not well-suited to heavy usage (as we saw in the actual games on Sunday).
II: The Starting Pitching Was Lights Out
Sure enough, Iowa's starting pitching was absolutely good enough to win the Regional. Just to recap, here's what Marcus Morgan, Brody Brecht, and Ty Langenberg did in their three starts:
Morgan: 5.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 5 K, 4 BB, 2 WP, 2 HBP
Brecht: 7.0 IP, 2 ER, 2 H, 8 K, 4 BB, 0 WP, 0 HBP
Langenberg: 7.0 IP, 4 ER, 7 H, 6 K, 4 BB, 1 WP, 0 HBP
We've already discussed Brecht's excellent start at length; you can read more about that here. It was one of his very best starts of the season and a tremendous performance in a high-pressure situation.
READ MORE: Brecht Watch 2023: An Ace Outing
Morgan's start had its rocky moments -- his control was definitely shaky at times, given two wild pitches, two hit batters, and four walks -- but he held North Carolina to just one run and put Iowa in position to beat the Tar Heels. Likewise, Langenberg has had better outings than his Sunday morning performance allowing four runs on seven hits and four walks, but he still did well enough to position Iowa for a much-needed win — and would have had just two earned runs had he been taken out prior to the eighth inning.
Starting pitching was one of the strengths for Iowa all season long, and Morgan, Brecht, and Langenberg showed exactly why in their three starts this weekend.
III: Relief Pitching Was Not Lights Out
Iowa had the best pitching staff in the Big Ten all season long and one of the best in the nation. The strength of the staff was not just the three starters, though -- it was the full staff, including the relievers. While the starters certainly lived up to their impressive billing at the Terre Haute regional, the Iowa bullpen had plenty of struggles.
UNC (Fri): 4.0 IP, 3 ER, 5 H, 4 K, 3 BB
ISU (Sat): 1.0 IP, 5 ER, 4 H, 3 K, 1 BB, 1 HBP
UNC (Sun): 6.0 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 7 K, 2 BB
ISU (Sun): 9.0 IP, 10 ER, 10 H, 7 K, 6 BB, 10 HBP
The bullpen narrowly avoided disaster on Friday night, allowing three runs and only shutting the door on North Carolina's comeback bid by Luke Llewellyn coming in to throw two strikeouts and end the game.
Disaster could not be avoided on Saturday, as the bullpen threw away Brecht's brilliant start with an absolute nightmare of an eighth inning. Five runs on four hits, a walk, and a hit batter was enough to derail the game, the Regional blueprint and ultimately the season. That cursed eighth inning is likely to linger long in the minds of fans and players alike, for the offseason and perhaps beyond.
The bullpen performance in Sunday afternoon's game against North Carolina was a bit of a mixed bag. On one hand, Jack Whitlock allowed the ninth-inning home run that blew the save and tied the game for North Carolina, leading to four additional innings of added baseball, which was direly unnecessary for a staff that was already starting to run low on options ahead of Sunday night's regional final.
On the other hand, the situation allowed Will Christopherson to deliver his most heroic performance of the season with 4.2 innings of shutout baseball, allowing zero hits and just two walks. That was an especially welcome redemption for Christopherson, who was part of the near-collapse against North Carolina on Friday night (0.1 IP, 3 ER, 2 H, 2 BB).
The Iowa pitchers in Sunday night's regional final just weren't able to throw enough strikes or limit the damage enough to give the Hawkeyes a better chance to win the game. 10 hit batters and six walks is entirely too many free passes to hand out to an opponent, and the Sycamores didn't have to do much to make Iowa pay for that generosity. And thanks to the aforementioned heavy workloads prior to Sunday night, most of the pitchers utilized against the Sycamores were little-used, underclassman bullpen arms who were suddenly asked to deliver in pressure-packed conditions.
IV: Wild Things
Questionable control was the one Achilles heel for Iowa pitching this season, and it unfortunately reared its head during the four regional games.
Totals, for all four games:
HBP: 14
WP: 2
BB: 24
Iowa actually didn't have a wild pitch after Morgan threw two early in Friday night's game. But wildness and a lack of command manifested itself in other ways, particularly in hit batters and walks. 10 of those 14 hit batters came in Sunday night's Indiana State game, many from arms that have not seen a lot of action this season.
Averaging six walks per game is difficult to overcome as well; that's a lot of free passes to hand out, which leads to a lot of extra traffic on the base paths and puts Iowa's stuff-heavy arms at a disadvantage, as opposing hitters can afford to be patient and wait for pitches over the plate. Improving command will likely be a top priority for many Iowa pitchers this offseason.
V: Cade Moss the Ironman
Cade Moss was behind the plate for every single pitch an Iowa pitcher threw during the NCAA Regional. That totaled a whopping 731 pitches in a little over 48 hours, including 408 pitches on Sunday alone as Iowa played 22 innings. That's a staggering workload (especially in hot, steamy conditions) but Moss didn't waver.
He was instrumental in Iowa's pitchers only getting credited with two wild pitches as well, as he stretched to grab multiple balls thrown outside the strike zone and dug other balls out of the dirt. Given the energy Moss had to expend behind the plate, it's perhaps understandable that his bat flagged a bit over the weekend -- he finished 3/16 in the Regional, with two walks and four strikeouts.
Regardless, Moss' ability to catch every pitch and provide a stabilizing effect behind the plate was key in giving Iowa a chance to advance from the NCAA Regional.
VI: The Bats Finally Woke Up a Bit
While Iowa's offensive output in the NCAA Regional was down from its season averages (aside from Sunday night's efforts in the regional final), Iowa hitters did enough to put Iowa in a position to win. Iowa scored at least four runs in each game and had a lead in the eighth inning or later in the first three games of the regional.
That said, it was good to see the bats wake up a bit on Sunday after somewhat sluggish performances on Friday and Saturday; the Hawkeyes went 11/46 against North Carolina and 13/40 against Indiana State in Sunday's pair of games, for a respectable .279 batting average.
Iowa also had five extra base hits combined -- four home runs and a triple. Three home runs weren't enough to topple the Sycamores on Sunday night, but it was good to see Iowa's bats look a bit more lively.
VII: Biggest Bats of the Weekend
Three hitters stand out from Iowa's weekend performers: Raider Tello, Brennen Dorighi, and Michael Seegers.
Tello led Iowa with 8 hits in the Regional, finishing 8/18 at the plate, with only a pair of strikeouts. That 8/18 line undersells what Tello was able to do on Saturday and Sunday, as he went 0/5 on Friday before bouncing back to go 8/13 in three games over the weekend.
Dorighi finished the weekend 7/15 at the plate, with four walks and three strikeouts. He had two home runs as part of a 4/5 effort at the plate against North Carolina on Sunday.
Seegers went 7/17 in four games, with three walks and a strikeout. He hit a key triple in Iowa's win over North Carolina on Sunday as well.
VIII: Slumping Sluggers
Unfortunately, several other Iowa sluggers slumped at the plate over the weekend. Ben Wilmes lost his starting job in Sunday's games after going 1/9 on Friday and Saturday; he finished 1/11 on the weekend.
Sam Hojnar finished with the worst batting average of the weekend for Iowa hitters (2/16, or .125), with seven strikeouts. However, his two hits were both critical -- his 2-RBI double helped stake Iowa to an early lead against North Carolina and his RBI double against Indiana State gave Iowa the lead in the sixth inning.
Kyle Huckstorf and Sam Petersen were two of the hottest hitters for Iowa down the stretch of the regular season and at the Big Ten Tournament, but neither guy could find his form in Terre Haute. Huckstorf finished 2/13 with three walks and two strikeouts, while Petersen finished 3/15 with three walks and four strikeouts.
IX: The Keaton Anthony Absence Hurt
Finally, not having Keaton Anthony in the lineup was definitely a blow to Iowa at the Regional. While he'd been gone for several weeks and Iowa had gotten accustomed to playing without him -- and had managed to do quite well in closing out the Big Ten season and advancing to the Big Ten Championship Game in Anthony's absence -- there's no doubt that his bat was missed.
Despite not playing in Iowa's final 18 games of the season (almost one-third of the year), Anthony still led the team in doubles (22) while ranking second in total bases (110) and fourth in total hits (61) and home runs (9). He is an exceptional hitter and was in the midst of an excellent season -- having him available would have boosted Iowa's entire lineup.
