Hawkeyes dominate Nebraska, earn a weekend sweep
The Iowa Baseball team arrived at the ballpark on Sunday with the series against Nebraska already won, but they still had they’re eyes on a bigger goal. Sweep the Huskers. Ty Langenberg was sharp on the mound and two hours and eight minutes after first pitch, the Hawkeyes brought out the brooms to celebrate a weekend sweep of their border rival.
“Anytime it’s against Nebraska, it’s a bigger deal than most weekends,” said Brennen Dorighi. “To get those three wins is huge for us. To just come out here and make a statement and even the playing field across the Big Ten (standings).”
For the second straight day, it was what transpired on the mound that set the tone for both sides. A day after Marcus Morgan went 6.0 scoreless innings, Ty Langenberg took the mound and put up a similar dominate performance. Althought, Ty probably envisioned the first at bat of the game going differently. Brice Matthews fouled off a couple of pitches and took Langenberg’s 2-2 changeup out of the park in left for a solo shot to make it 1-0 Huskers.
“I made a mistake. It was supposed to be down (in the zone), so it was just understanding that it’s a place I can’t miss,” said Langenberg. “This is a great team that we were facing, and they’re going to be very agressive, so I just had to live on the edge of the zone…Just having the confidence to take a second to regroup and believe in myself.”
After letting up the home run to Matthews, Ty did exactly what he did for much of last season as the Hawkeyes Sunday afternoon starter. He went out, limited walks and hits, while racking up strikeouts. Through six innings, he had worked three 1-2-3 innings and allowed just six total baserunners. At 85 pitches, the coaching staff could have taken Ty out of the game and let him celebrate the outing. It took some eye contact from down the bench to change that thought.
“There was no conversation. I looked down at the other end of the dugout, we made eye contact and just kind of like a let’s do this,” said Ty. “I had a short conversation with Sean (McGrath) right before the seventh inning and it was no questions asked, he just said keep rolling and that’s all I needed.”
Langenberg went out for the seventh inning and retired the Huskers on nine pitches, including getting a groundball 6U-3 double play to end the inning. His final stat line read, 7.0 innings, three hits, 0 runs, nine strikeouts and just two walks. He threw 60 of his 94 (63.8%) pitches for strikes.
“I would say 63 is a pretty good number. 60-65 is ideally what we’re looking for. Anything above 65 is the best situation for any pitcher,” said Langenberg. “I felt like the fastball was definitely something that opened up a lot of possibilities. I was able to work both sides of the plate, up and down with it…I felt very comfortable throwing the changeup, especially below the zone for swing and miss. The slider I think really rounded out my arsenal today. I was able to just float it in there for a couple of first strikes to get ahead of batters and when I was able to do that I had a lot of success.”
The story on the mound was vastly different for Nebraska. Their starter Will Walsh came into the day having issued just four walks in 23.2 innings of work on the season. He lasted just 36 pitches and threw just 17 of them for strikes.
He wiggled off the hook in the first inning, when two walks helped the Hawkeyes load the bases. A Sam Petersen ground ball got Walsh out of the inning. In the second inning, he did not have the same good fortune. A leadoff walk gave him three on the day, while Michael Seegers followed with a single. That set the table for Cade Moss in the nine spot. He delivered a two-run triple that nearly left the park in right field to give the Hawkeyes a 2-1 lead.
Ben Wilmes followed with a sacrifice fly to knock in Moss and Iowa had retaken control with another early inning scoring strike from the offense. Walsh made it through just 1.1 innings and the Huskers had to go to their bullpen to find at least 20 more outs.
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“I think they had a clear blueprint from one pitcher to reliever to reliever that they were trying to go throughout the weekend,” said Dorighi. “We were able to break that chain up and make them go to guys earlier than they wanted to and that was huge for us to kind of just break up their momentum and get them off their blueprint.”
While Langenberg was on the mound putting up zeros, the Hawkeyes were able to add to their lead in the fifth inning off of the Huskers bullpen. Brennen Dorighi led off the inning and got every piece of the 1-1 offering from reliever Kyle Perry. His solo home run exited the bat at 104 miles per hour and sailed well over the right field wall for a 418-foot blast. Dorighi took has time to admire the home run before tossing his bat aside to round the bases.
“I’ve been struggling just a little bit lately and sometimes you just need that one to get you going. I think it helped me in the next couple at bats. Maybe that extra second to enjoy it will help me get going for the next couple of weeks and finish the season strong,” said Dorighi. “They’d been attacking me with the fastball in all weekend and was trying to just get one out over the plate I can do some damage with.”
That was not the end of the fireworks for the fifth inning. Sam Petersen got things going against with a double down the left field line. Sam Hojnar followed with an RBI single to drive in Petersen. Hojnar later scored on a wild pitch to give the Hawkeyes some breathing room with a 6-1 lead.
“I think it was important (to get runs early and late). I felt like offensively all weekend long, one through nine, everybody did something,” said Heller. “Everybody in the lineup did somethign positive. Something to help the cause…one of the bigger things that came out of the weekend was that our offense for three straigth days really did a nice job of preparing for who they were going to face. They went out out and executed really well.”
Ty Langenberg exited the game after seven really good innings and gave way for the Iowa bullpen to nail down the final six outs. Will Christophersen worked around a one-out walk and picked up a pair of K’s to end the eighth inning, while Jared Simpson got a 4-6-3 double play in the ninth to clinch the victory in the Sunday series finale.
Raider Tello, Sam Petersen and Michael Seegers each had two hits on the day, while seven Hawkeyes recorded a hit. The offense as a whole drew five walks to just three strikeouts. They were just 5/19 (.263) with runners on base, but the pitching staff held Nebraska to 1/11 (.091) with runners on base and 1/9 (.111) to lead off innings.
Up next for the Hawkeyes…
With the win, Iowa moves to 29-10 on the season and jumps into a tie for fourth place in the Big Ten with a 7-5 record. The Hawkeyes moved up to #43 in the RPI with the three-game sweep, which puts them well within at-large bid range for the time being. Iowa will take the field on Tuesday for a midweek game against DII Upper Iowa. Rick Heller played for the Peacocks from 1982-86 and was head coach of the program from 1988-1999. First pitch is set for 4:00pm on BTN+.
