The Hawkeyes finish up their eight game homestand with a weekend series against Central Michigan. The Chippewas come into the series with a 9-8 record, but they were an NCAA Tournament participant last season and are a tough opponent.
CMU is coming off a four-game sweep of Miami Ohio, but they haven’t played a real tough schedule outside of their first weekend. They are 0-4 against Q1/2 teams, including losses to Wake Forest, Coastal Carolina and a pair of losses to West Virginia.
Friday Pitching Match-up – rSoph Adam Mazur vs Sr Jordan Patty
Mazur will be back on the mound for the Hawkeyes, looking to put together a start like he had in the first couple weeks of the year. He has allowed 11 runs on 13 hits, while walking nine over his last 14.1 innings pitched. Mazur allowed four earned runs on four hits and two home runs, while walking four against Texas Tech on Saturday.
The Chippewas will send Jordan Patty to the mound and don’t let his 7.36 ERA deceive you. He is a going to be a tough matchup for the Hawkeyes. Patty posted a 2.22 ERA over his 41 appearances prior to this season, including a 17-4 record. His last start showed the ability that he has on the mound. Patty went 8.0 innings, striking out eight, while allowing just three hits against Miami Ohio.
Saturday Pitching Match-up – rSr Dylan Nedved vs Soph Andrew Taylor or Jr Garrett Navarra
Nedved will make his second start of the season and he has been good on the mound for the Hawkeyes this season. Dylan has posted a 2.12 ERA over five appearances, including 18 strikeouts and a 0.88 WHIP. In his start vs UC Irvine, he went 7.0 innings allowing just two runs, but got hit with the 2-1 loss.
The Chippewas have a couple of options for Saturday, starting with Andrew Taylor. Taylor has posted a 3.00 ERA over five starts this season, including 31 strikeouts in 27.0 innings. His last two starts have been particularly solid, going 10.2 innings, allowing just two runs and striking out 13. The other option is Garrett Navarra. Navarra has posted a 9.35 ERA this season, including a 2.02 WHIP, but his last start was really good. He went 7.0 innings, allowing just one earned run on five hits, while striking out seven.
Sunday Pitching Match-up – Soph Ty Langenberg vs Sr Logan Buczkowski
The Sunday start goes to Ty Langenberg and he has earned the spot this season. Over four appearances, Langenberg has posted a 2.33 ERA, including 24 strikeouts to just five walks in 19.1 innings pitched. His last start on Sunday against Texas Tech was his best, as he went 5.0 innings and held the Red Raiders to just one run, while striking out ten.
CMU will finish the weekend with Logan Buczkowski on the mound and don’t expect him to go very many innings. While Buczkowski has started four games, he has not thrown more than 3.2 innings in any of them. His last start was against Miami Ohio, he went 3.2 innings, allowing just one run on two hits, while striking out five. He does average 13.1 strikeouts per nine innings.
Breaking down the Chippewas
As a team, Central Michigan is batting just .240, but have a .365 team on-base percentage. Their team strikeout rate is 23.7% and they have just two batters with above a .300 batting average.
OF Jakob Marsee leads the team in average (.365), hits (23), HRs (3) and RBIs (19), including a .474 on-base percentage. 2B Mario Camilletti is second on the team in average (.345), while leading the team in runs (19), walks (19) and on-base percentage (.526). Those two will be the most dangerous batters in the Chippewas lineup.
3B Aidan Shepardson is batting .279 over 12 starts, while 1B Danny Wuestenfeld is batting .250 and leads the team in doubles with six. SS Justin Simpson was one of the best hitters for CMU last season batting over .300, but has struggled so far this season (.200). He has been able to draw 11 walks to push his on-base percentage to .368.
Expect to see Jacob Donahue (.226), Garrett Navarra (.200) and Robby Morgan IV (.179) in the batting order as well. While this lineup has the potential to be better than they are showing, it is not the same lineup that Iowa has faced against UCI, Texas Tech and others. Hopefully, the Iowa pitchers can have a good weekend.
The Chippewas have a 5.57 team ERA, including a 1.52 WHIP and 18 home runs allowed. The bullpen has just one arm that has thrown more than 3.0 innings with a sub-4.00 ERA.
Ryan Palmblad has been the best arm out of the bullpen for the Chips. He has appeared in five games and has yet to allow a run. Over 9.0 innings, Palmblad has struck out eight and allowed just eight baserunners. Adam Mrakitsch (4.05 ERA) has appeared in four games and struck out 10 over 6.2 innings, but has allowed 11 hits.
Ryan Insco has posted a 4.50 ERA over eight appearances and 12.0 innings. He has struck out 13 and has not issued a walk. Jake Jones leads the team with three saves, but has a 6.17 ERA over seven appearances. Look for Clayton Brock (6.75 ERA) and Ben Vitas (9.82 ERA) to potentially see some innings.
Midweek at Illinois State
The Redbirds sit at 8-8 on the season, but have good wins over Arkansas, Purdue and Illinois-Chicago. They have a three-game series coming up against St Louis this weekend, before the face the Hawkeyes on Tuesday.
OF Ryan Cermak and 1B Jake McCaw are both off to really good starts for Illinois State and will be the two most dangerous bats the Hawkeyes face. The two are batting above .350 and have combined for eight home runs, while McCaw leads the team with 17 RBIs. Cermak has drawn a team leading 12 walks and posts a .485 on-base percentage.
OF Connor Olson has been a part time starter and in eight starts, he has racked up a .353 batting average to go along with a .488 on-base percentage. UTL JP Gauthier (.276), 3B Nick Gile (.254), OF Aidan Huggins (.239) and SS Luke Cheng (.239) figure to be in the lineup as well. As a team, they are batting .259, with a .349 on-base percentage, while the strikeout percentage is not bad at 20.2%.
It is hard to guess who will find the mound for the Redbirds, given that is a midweek game. The team posts a 4.28 ERA, including 9.35 SO/9 and 4.46 BB/9. Illinois State is a tough team, who has beaten some good teams, so this will be a good test for the Hawkeye midweek arms.
Final Thoughts
Set the Over/Under for the week at 3. The Hawkeyes are looking to finish the non-conference slate strong, with the Big Ten opening weekend coming next weekend. Central Michigan is better than their record indicates, but Iowa needs to take advantage of them while they are still looking to get their footing. If Iowa can string together a 3-1 week or maybe 4-0, that will give them good momentum going into Big Ten play.
