By Hawkeyesports.com

PORT CHARLOTTE, Florida – Sophomore RHP Brody Brecht was perfect in his season debut not allowing a baserunner through five innings of work as the University of Iowa baseball team defeated Quinnipiac, 7-1. Brecht struck out 10-of-15 Bobcat batters while hitting 100 MPH on the radar gun.

“Brody went out and set the tone for us,” said head coach Rick Heller. “He was outstanding. He was able to hit with his slider, pretty much at will all day, which made him very dominant and unhittable. A great start, the best performance of his young career.”

Redshirt sophomore Zach Voelker came in and took over right where Brecht left off. Striking out six batters over four innings en route to his first career save.

“Voelker came in and was lights out as well,” said Heller. “Both of those guys did exactly what we needed to do. We didn’t walk a batter today. That was the message to the group, we had a situation where the wind is blowing in, not a great day to hit and really made Quinnipiac earn everything that they got.”

Nine different Hawkeyes tallied hits in the contest with three players notching multi-hit games. Redshirt junior Brayden Frazier went 3-for-3 with three RBIs and a run scored. Fifth year Brennen Dorighi (2-for-3) and redshirt junior Kyle Huckstorf (2-for-3) each scored two runs.

The Hawkeyes broke things open in the third inning as redshirt sophomore Keaton Anthony connected on a pitch and drove it to deep left field just inside the foul pole for his first home run of the season. Frazier followed that up with a double down the left field line that scored Huckstorf and Dorighi.

Frazier stayed hot and got the scoring going in what would be a big fifth inning for the Hawkeyes with an RBI single. Redshirt junior Ben Tallman knocked in another run for Iowa on a single through the left side. Freshman Gable Mitchell tallied his first career RBI on a sacrifice fly, and junior Michael Seegers brought home the fourth run of the inning on a safety squeeze.

Voelker and the Hawkeye defense held the Bobcats to one run over the next four innings as they cruised to victory.

“The offense was scrappy,” said Heller. “Just kept finding ways to get on base and then finally broke through with some runs in the middle innings. Keaton Anthony got us going with the home run, and Brayden Frazier had a big game with three hits. It was nice to see Blake Guerin and Gable Mitchell both get their first college hits. Really couldn’t have drawn it up any better with how things went today.”

OF NOTE

• This was Brecht’s second career start. His first came in the 2022 Big Ten Tournament against Michigan (5/29/22).
• Brecht struck out a career-high 10 batters in a career-high five innings pitched.
• Frazier matched his career high with three RBIs (4x, last at UC Irvine, 3/13/21).
• Gable Mitchell and Blake Guerin both recorded their first collegiate hits.
• Mitchell, Guerin, and Zach Voelker made their Hawkeye debuts.

NEXT UP

The Hawkeyes (2-0) return to action Sunday, facing Quinnipiac at 9a.m. (CT) in Game 3 of the Snowbird Baseball NCAA Classic. The game will be played at Centennial Park.

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