Harty: Iowa baseball has our attention again
The Iowa baseball team was in the early stages of defeating Maryland on Saturday when I called my 86-year old mother in Des Moines to remind her the game was being televised.
It turns out, she already had been watching from the beginning.
In fact, mom seemed surprised that I would even feel the need to remind her that the resurgent Iowa baseball team was playing on television.
Shortly after that conversation, my neighbor from across the street saw me standing on my front porch and asked for an update on the Iowa baseball team.
I bring up these two interactions because under normal circumstances, neither would have happened.
The circumstances with the Iowa baseball team are far from normal, though, as the Hawkeyes pounded Maryland 11-0 on Saturday to advance to Sunday’s Big Ten Tournament championship game at Ameritrade Park in Omaha, Neb.
Iowa improved to 30-25 overall, marking the third consecutive season that the Hawkeyes have won at least 30 games under third-year head coach Rick Heller.
You name it and the eight-seeded Hawkeyes probably did it better than Maryland during Saturday’s semifinal, from timely hitting to clutch pitching to stellar defense.
Freshman Shane Ritter pitched three scoreless innings to start the game for Iowa, while sophomore Nick Gallagher was dominant over the final six innings, finishing with a career-high nine strikeouts.
“I’m really happen for Shane Ritter,” Heller said on the Big Ten Network post-game show. “We really put him in a tough spot. It felt like he was the right choice and he gave us a good start.
“And Nick was really, really good today. And he was able to take advantage of a couple big innings offensively. So it was good day to us.”
It’s been a good three weeks for Iowa, ever since the Hawkeyes won back-to-back games against Michigan State on May 14-15.
That was the start of a five-game winning streak that helped Iowa secure a spot as the lowest seed in the eight-team conference tournament. It doesn’t matter where you’re seeded, though, as long as you get in the field.
That’s especially true in baseball where the difference between the first-place team in the Big Ten standings and the eighth-place team is tiny compared to football and basketball.
The Hawkeyes have won seven of their last eight games and have advanced to the Big Ten title game for the first time since 2010.
They also have reignited a fan base, including my mother, that lost some of its energy during Iowa’s up-and-down regular season.
Word is that Interstate 80 as of Saturday afternoon was filling up with Hawkeye fans heading west to Omaha to perhaps watch history on Sunday, considering Iowa never has won the conference tournament.
Iowa would have to win the conference tournament in order to clinch a spot in the NCAA Tournament for a second year in a row.
That might seem like a lot of pressure. But pressure has been Iowa’s co-pilot for the past three weeks.
Iowa is getting contributions from up and down the lineup, led by the seniors, as you would hope.
Senior center fielder Joel Booker has nine of Iowa’s 41 hits in three tournament games.
The North Carolina native could’ve easily basked in the glory while being interviewed on the Big Ten Network after Saturday’s game.
But instead, Booker singled out Iowa’s freshmen for praise.
“Everyone is coming up big at the top of the lineup, the bottom of the lineup, especially our freshmen,” Booker said. “They’re playing like they’ve been here before.”
That was Booker’s way of being a senior leader.
There are plenty of factors in Iowa’s turnaround, not the least of which is team chemistry. The seniors set the tone for everybody else. And right now, Iowa has the right tone.
“They never gave up,” Heller said of his seniors. “They’ve gotten better with their leadership as the year went on.”
From an execution standpoint, Iowa is clicking on all cylinders.
The emergence of Gallagher as a long reliever has been crucial in Iowa’s resurgence. The former Iowa City West standout eats up innings, which helps the bullpen.
He also followed Booker’s lead by sharing the praise with is teammates.
“First off, I’d like to point out that Shane had a great start," Gallagher said of Ritter. "Being a freshman in this atmosphere in a big game semifinal, I just he did a great job. And then for me, I was just trying to pound the zone and not walk guys. I had my slider working and kind of pitched off that. I kind of pitched backwards today."
A team also needs some good luck when making a resurgence. Iowa is fortunate to finally have a healthy Tyler Peyton because he is a reliable starter on the mound.
This Iowa team had to find itself after losing so many key players and influential leaders from last season’s team that advanced to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1990.
Leaders aren’t made over night. They feed off the culture and emerge during the course of a season, gaining credibility and respect with their actions on and off the field.
“A lot of the guys that were left had to basically take the reins and lead and they’ve gotten better all year long, they’ve done a super job,” Heller said. “And down the stretch, they’ve been there to lead the way.
“Our best players started playing well at the right time. Getting Tyler Peyton back healthy for the last month of the season was really big for us. And then the schedule turned our way a little bit at the end.”
Toughness is another part of being a leader as Iowa senior catcher Daniel Aaron Moriel showed again on Saturday by playing all nine innings.
An injury to fellow catcher Jimmy Frankos has left Aaron Moriel as Iowa’s only true catcher.
“He’s doing a good job,” Heller said of Aaron Moriel, who is from East Los Angeles, Calif. “He’s a tough kid and he always wants to be back there. Daniel is a tough kid who will grit it out for us. I know he’s tired and his knees are somewhat sore. But he’ll gut it out for us, no question about it. I’m really happy and proud for him.”
Happy and proud also would describe the Iowa fans right now.