Cade Obermueller’s dream right on schedule with Iowa baseball
Iowa City High graduate has earned Sunday starting spot as sophomore
By Pat Harty
IOWAY CITY, Iowa – There has been talk and speculation that Cade Obermueller would be Iowa’s Sunday starter this season, the third piece to a starting rotation that includes Brody Brecht and Marcus Morgan.
Iowa head coach Rick Heller even said as much during an interview on KCJJ radio in Iowa City a few weeks ago.
Obermueller wasn’t aware of what Heller had said about him on the radio until being told at Iowa’s annual media day event on Tuesday.
“It’s been out there. I got congratulated last week about it,” Obermueller said Tuesday. “But I had no clue. I was just working and worried about my pitch-to-pitch routine.”
Heller made it official this week by telling Obermueller that he had earned the third starting position.
The sophomore southpaw from Iowa City is now part of arguably the top starting pitching rotation in the Big Ten.
All three starters are also from Iowa and two of them are from Iowa City with Morgan having graduated from Iowa City West, while Obermueller is a City High graduate.
“It means a lot,” Obermueller said. “We’re all Iowa guys. This has been like a dream. This is the rotation that I was dreaming of and to be a part of it is crazy.
“It’s kind of like a humbling experience. I’m really happy I can be a part of it.”
While Brecht and Morgan already are standout performers at the college level, Obermueller is determined to follow in their footsteps.
He appeared in 15 games last season as a freshman with two starts. He finished the 2023 season with a 4.91 earned-run average and with 36 strikeouts over 22 innings.
But it was the progress Obermueller made in the offseason, and in preseason practice, including the intrasquad scrimmages, that has catapulted him to a starting position.
“I felt like Cade threw as well as I’ve seen him throw this past Sunday,” Rick Heller said Tuesday. “Just consistency with the strike zone with all of his pitches. He’s in much better control of himself on the mound.
“He’s controlling the running game and fielding his position better. Just all the little things that Cade needed to get better at this past year, he has, and he’s worked extremely hard for that. If Cade is our Sunday starter all year, we’re going to be a pretty good team.”
Obermueller is right on schedule as far as earning a starting position.
“This was my goal. I wanted to do it this year,” Obermueller said. “We got the work in and now we’re doing it.”
Obermueller, who is listed at 5-foot-11 and 160 pounds, describes himself as a late bloomer from a physical standpoint. He has gained about 16 pounds since becoming a Hawkeye, but still is much smaller than Brecht and Morgan.
Even with his lack of size, Obermueller has become much stronger as a Hawkeye, so much so that his fast ball has been clocked at 97 miles per hour.
“It’s a struggle for me, but I know I have to focus on that and gain some weight,” Obermueller said.
Brecht and Morgan are both coming off seasons in which they earned All-Big Ten recognition.
The hard-throwing Brecht, whose fast ball has been clocked at 104 miles per hour, is considered a potential first-round pick in the 2024 amateur draft should he choose to enter the draft, while Iowa finished 12-3 in the games that Morgan started last season.
Each of the three starters brings something different to the mound, but especially the 5-foot-11, 160-pound Obermueller, who is the son of former Hawkeye and Major League pitcher Wes Obermueller.
“We’re all unique,” Cade Obermueller said. “Marcus throws a lot differently than Brody, and obviously, I’m a lefty, a lot different. I’m a unique lefty. Yeah, we’re all unique in our own way.”
Obermueller wasn’t necessarily born to be pitcher, but he was raised as one by his father, whom Cade credits with helping him reach this position.
“I will call him every day,” Cade Obermueller said of his father. “He’s been like my coach. He’s my personal coach and he helps me with the mental game. He’s really process-oriented, so, it’s really helped me. I lean on him for about everything.”
Obermueller also leans on his two fellow starting pitchers for support and for motivation.
“We push each other and it’s a crazy thing,” Obermueller said. “We all love each other, and it feels great.”
All three starting pitchers also share a strong mutual respect for each other’s ability.
“We got three really capable Friday night guys and we’re going to take our days and do the best we can with them,” Morgan said. “We feed off each other. We’re all really competitive guys and we have an understanding that we’re all Friday capable guys and we really just want to play our part for the team and allow that to take us to where we want to go.”
Brecht has made considerable strides since deciding to focus solely on baseball about a year ago. The Ankeny native came to Iowa as a two-sport athlete and was on a football scholarship when he arrived.
Brecht, a former wide receiver, tried to juggle both sports, but it eventually became too demanding and time consuming.
“I think that Brody is in a completely different place than he’s been the last two years right now,” Heller said. “The year playing baseball has really paid dividends. He is a completely different guy right now in a lot of ways. His mentality and his maturity, and the shape he’s in, he’s in great pitching shape.
“When you guys see Brody throw this year, you’re going to notice it visually with how he’s smoothed things out and with how he commands the strike zone much better with all his pitches, and especially his fast ball.”
Brecht attracted numerous major league scouts whenever he pitched in the fall, so Heller decided to shut Brecht down so Brecht could focus more on himself.
“One of the smartest things I think that we did this year, with Brody’s blessing, was shut him down very early in the fall because it was apparent that anytime he took the mound in a scrimmage or whatever it might be, there was still going to be 25 or 30 people, you know scouts or whoever watching,” Heller said. “And as long as he was being evaluated, he was going to compete the way he knew how.
“So, shutting him down where he could just focus on himself and focus on the things that he needed to improve on, and doing that earlier than later, I really felt like that promoted much more growth that it would have.”
Brecht credits much of his success to working with Iowa pitching coach Sean McGrath.
“Just being able to have four or five months working with Sean, in my opinion, the best pitching coach in the country, is very beneficial to me,” Brecht said. “I’m super excited for the season to start.”
Iowa’s season will start on Friday against Seton Hall in the Swig and Swine College Classic in Charleston, South Carolina with Brecht expected to be on the mound.
Brecht and his team both enter the season with unusually high expectations.
Brecht was named a preseason first-team All-American by D1Baseball and by Perfect Game, while Morgan and outfielder Sam Peterson were both named preseason All-Big Ten by Perfect Game.
Iowa also has been ranked as high as No. 20 nationally in the preseason polls.
“It doesn’t mean anything until we start playing,” Heller said. “It’s nice to be noticed. I mean it’s great. It’s awesome. But that doesn’t mean anything when we start on Friday.”
Sam Peterson said the Iowa batters have benefitted from facing their own pitchers throughout preseason practice.
The unseasonable warm weather also has allowed for Iowa to practice outside every day in February, which is extremely rare.
“You get a little taste of what people will get this year,” Petersen said of Iowa’s starting pitchers. “I can only imagine going into a Sunday game and it’s Cade Obermueller on the mound. It’s going to be tough to hit against them.
“It’s been a blessing to hit against the top competition all offseason. We have a really good staff and there in a really good spot. They’ve helped to develop our hitters getting into a good spot just seeing that stuff weekend after weekend.”
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