By Pat Harty

IOWA CITY, Iowa – One of the very first things that Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller did after hiring Sean Kenny as his new pitching coach last summer was to make sure that Kenny had a proven ace to build around.

The proven ace in this case was southpaw and Iowa City native Cade Obermueller, who had considered entering the 2024 Major League Draft before ultimately deciding to return to Iowa for his junior season.

“As soon as coach Heller hired me, that’s the first guy we met with, just took him to lunch and had a chance to sit down with him,” Kenny said of Obermueller at Iowa’s annual media day event on Tuesday. “Not only is he a great pitcher as we all know; he’s the perfect teammate and the perfect representative of the program.

“So, I couldn’t be happier about him being back.”

The fact that Kenny was hired as the new pitching coach was part of the fallout from last season when the Iowa pitchers struggled to throw strikes on a consistent basis.

The Iowa pitchers combined to walk 327 batters over 470.2 innings last season.

Even former star pitcher Brody Brecht struggled with his control at times, while Obermueller and former Hawkeye Marcus Morgan walked 41 and 53 batters over 59.2 and 54.1 innings, respectively.

Iowa still finished 31-23 overall, marking the ninth time in 11 seasons under Heller that Iowa has won at least 30 games.

But more was expected from the 2024 squad, which failed to make the NCAA Tournament despite having a high-powered offense that was loaded with veteran players, most of whom have moved on.

“I think we’ll find our identity and consistent pitching usually leads to consistent offense, even if it’s not a lot of runs,” Heller said. “This team needs that pitching and the defense to be consistent because I don’t think it’s a team that like you saw last year there were times when we out-slugged people and there were times when being down five or six (runs) wasn’t that scary with the guys that we were running out there.

“But I don’t think we’re going to be a team that’s going to thrive in that environment very well.”

Kenny brings 28 years of coaching experience to Heller’s staff. He spent the 2024 season as the pitching coach for the University of Houston, and before that, he spent the previous seven seasons on the Georgia coaching staff.

Kenny has coached the last 15 seasons with five different Power Five programs, and he has helped to develop 45 pitchers that were selected in the Major League Draft.

So, he’s seen a lot of stuff over the years, and he likes what he’s seen so far with the Iowa pitchers.

“I feel like stuff-wise we’re on par with the teams in the SEC, just on raw stuff,” Kenny said of the Iowa pitchers. “There’s not a team in the country that wouldn’t take Cade Obermueller. And he’s not the only one. So, I personally am confident in just the stuff. And I think we can measure up with just about everybody on that end.

“The thing that will be interesting is we’ve got to overcome some lack of experience. But boy, I like to start with stuff and move from there. And we feel good about that.”

Heller also has added Cade Obermueller’s father, former Major League pitcher and former Hawkeye Wes Obermueller, to his staff as the director of player development.

“I’ve always said he’s been like my private coach, so it’s been an easy adjustment,” Cade Obermueller said of having his father on the staff.

Iowa returns 20 letter-winners, but only two full-time starting position players from last season, including second baseman and Iowa City native Gable Mitchell.

Heller has settled on his starting pitching rotation for this week’s season-opening three-game series against South Florida with Obermueller slated to start in Friday’s season opener followed by Aaron Savary on Saturday and Reece Beuter on Sunday.

Anthony Watts also could be a starter, but for now, he will be used out of the bullpen.

“It was a tough decision on whether to start Anthony or bring him out of the bullpen,” Heller said. ‘So, this could flip-flop at any time. But right now, week one, big picture, this might be the best version of the team if it works; use Anthony as a longer closer on Friday after Cade if we have a lead or feel like we have a chance to win that game because he’s a guy that can go three or four innings and he’s prepped to start and he’s built up to start.”

Heller likes what he has seen so far from Cade Obermueller, who was named the Big Ten Preseason Pitcher of the Year.

“The one break that we caught this summer is that Cade Obermueller is back and that gives us a bonafide Friday night starter out there,” Heller said. “And Cade has just continued to make steady progress and he’s been pretty impressive in the early simulated games that we’ve done.

“I feel like he’s in the best place that he’s been since he has been here.”

Cade Obermueller finished last season with a 4-3 record, and with a respectable 3.92 earned-run average.

However, in addition to walking 41 batters, he also threw 10 wild pitches and hit 16 batters.

“Obviously, we were a little bit disappointed about strike throwing,” Cade Obermueller said of last season. “That was one of our weaknesses and we want to make an adjustment on that.”

As for a starting lineup, Heller wasn’t ready to go that far when asked on Monday.

“That one’s a little tougher,” Heller said. “We’re still taking in as much data as we can. We just found out literally a half hour ago who their (South Florida) starters are going to be. So, trying to prep was a little tough. They have a new coach and a lot of guys took off in the portal stuff.”

Gable Mitchell believes that the uncertainty over who will start could actually be beneficial to the team.

“We still don’t even know what the lineup is going to be going into game one, so I think that gives us actually an edge because it just creates new life for everybody,” Mitchell said. “Nobody is guaranteed anything for that first game and people are still fighting for it, even though we play Friday. There’s just a lot of things still up in the air and it’s good because it creates competition and just makes sure that everybody is ready to play.”