By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – What occurred on Saturday at Banks Field might have seemed like one of the dreams that Izaya Fullard had as a kid while growing up in Iowa City, but it was all real.

From the capacity crowd to the near-perfect weather conditions to Iowa scoring eight runs with two outs in the fifth inning and then cruising to a 17-9 victory over Nebraska, it was all real and a whole lot of fun.

“I knew with Nebraska and a game like this was going to have a great atmosphere,” said Fullard, who grew up dreaming of being an Iowa baseball player. “This is why I came here. This is why I play the game for games like this.

“The fans were amazing today.”

So were the Iowa hitters with two outs.

The score was even at 3-3 in the bottom of the fifth inning, and it appeared that Nebraska would get out of the inning after having recorded two outs.

But then Iowa senior Chris Whelan ignited the two-out rally with a single between third base and shortstop.

Catcher Austin Martin then drove in two runs with a double to deep center and Fullard drove in two more runs with a mammoth home run that sailed over the center field fence.

When the inning finally ended, Iowa had turned a 3-3 tie into an 11-3 rout.

“The energy in the dugout was unreal,” said Fullard, who graduated from West High in 2017 and played his freshman season at Kirkwood College. “I was actually talking to one of the players from Nebraska and he said that he had never seen that before, talking about our eight-run inning with two outs.

“That kind of energy with this team, I mean nothing better than that. That’s what you play the game for, for innings like that.”

Iowa had 11 consecutive batters reach base in the fifth with two outs.

“I’ve never been a part of a game or an inning like that,” Fullard said. “Up and down the lineup, guys were barreling balls and finding the holes. It was super fun to be a part of.”

Iowa clinched its fourth Big Ten series in a row and improved to 23-14 overall and 9-5 in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes are 9-2 in conference play since being swept by Big Ten leader Indiana in the opening conference series.

Iowa will look for the series sweep on Sunday with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m. at Banks Field.

“We’re just taking it one game at a time and we’re not focusing too far in the future,” said junior Ben Norman, who had three hits, including a three-run homer run in the fourth. “We’re just taking it game-by-game and pitch-by-pitch, just trying to really evaluate how we’ve been doing and just focus on the task at hand.”

The game showed early signs of being a pitcher’s duel with neither team scoring in the first three innings.

Nebraska scored the game’s first run in the top of the fourth, but Norman quickly erased the lead with his three-run blast in the bottom of the frame off Nebraska starter Nate Fisher.

Nebraska responded with back-to-back home runs in the fifth off Iowa starter Cam Baumann, but then Iowa answered with its eight-run outburst in the bottom of the fifth.

“It started out as an old-fashioned pitcher’s duel,” said Iowa coach Rick Heller. “I thought Cam was really good and Fisher was outstanding.

“We finally got to him a little bit, and then I just think sometimes baseball is crazy when a guy is so good like that and you get anybody else out there, it just seems a little easier.”

Heller felt that his offense was ready to bust out, and that’s exactly what happened on Saturday.

“I’ve liked our approach the last 10 days and it’s been getting better,” Heller said. “And we’ve been talking as a group that we felt like we were on the verge of breaking out offensively. And to score eight runs with two outs in one inning, that doesn’t happen very often.”

Iowa finished with 17 hits, including four by Whelan, who also scored four runs from his lead-off spot.

Whelan is hitting nearly .400 since he was moved up to the lead-off spot.

“For whatever reason I think Chris feels real comfortable there,” Heller said. “His swing was in a bad place before we moved him up, and right before we moved him up, I thought it was starting to get better.

“He’s been working really hard on cleaning it up and we talked a couple weeks ago that it wasn’t going to last long. He’s just too good of a hitter and he works too hard at it for him to be in a slump for too long. And getting him back in the lead-off I think helped with his confidence and he’s seeing the ball really well now.”

Iowa’s bullpen struggled some in the later innings, but that was about the only blemish.

In addition to watching an eight-run series-clinching victory in near-perfect weather, Hawkeye fans also had a chance to meet some of the Iowa football players who signed autographs before the game.

Iowa quarterback Nate Stanley also threw out the ceremonial first pitch to a loud ovation.

“A great crowd today,” Heller said. “I appreciate all the Hawk fans coming out to support us. A wonderful atmosphere and a beautiful day. It couldn’t have been any better.”