Iowa Baseball Midweek Preview: St Thomas Tommies

The Iowa Baseball team is back in action at Duane Banks Field this evening after suffering a disappointing loss against Western Illinois on Tuesday night. They’ll face the Summit League leading St Thomas Tommies tonight looking to salvage their lone double midweek of the season.

The Hawkeyes are coming off one of their biggest weekends of the season, taking down Michigan 6-5, 3-2, 7-4, for a road sweep over the Wolverines in Ann Arbor. Adding those three wins to the ledger, in conjunction with Oregon’s series win over UCLA, Iowa enters this week with a 2.5-game lead atop the Big Ten standings. However, the good feelings from the weekend were wiped away, with an unexpected upset loss against the Leathernecks. That being said, Iowa gets an immediate opportunity to put the WIU loss in the rearview mirror.

“I’m excited to see how they handle it. Are they going to bounce back?” said Heller. “I told them that we’ll find out a lot about ourselves and see who shows up.”

First pitch for Wednesday’s game between the Hawkeyes and Tommies is scheduled for 6:05pm CT on BTN+. It will be the 6th all-time meeting between the two programs, with Iowa leading the series 4-1, including a pair of wins in Iowa City last season.

St Thomas Tommies (19-14, 13-4)

St. Thomas may not be eligible for the NCAA Tournament just yet as a transitioning program, but that hasn’t stopped the Tommies from making serious noise in the Summit League. They come into this week with a 19-14 overall record, but they lead the Summit League with a 13-14 mark, holding a 2.5-game lead over Oral Roberts.

This is the fifth of six games that St Thomas will play against Power 4 teams this season. The Tommies have faced Minnesota twice, falling in both contests (8-2, 12-2), while they also dropped a double midweek trip to Kansas (7-6, 15-6) back in late March. Iowa and St Thomas were initially set to meet twice, but the first meeting was canceled due to weather. They are still scheduled to face Minnesota on April 30th for their lone Power 4 home game.

As a team, the Tommies are the top hitting team in the Summit League, slashing .303/.394/.452, leading the league in all three categories. They are second in the league in doubles (70) and have the lowest strikeouts per game (6.1) by a very large margin. Joe Vos, Tanner Recchio and Max Moris are all in the top ten in the Summit League in batting average.

Their pitching staff doesn’t have great numbers in a conference that, overall, isn’t built on pitching. St Thomas has a 6.47 team ERA, while they are allowing 1.12 hits per inning and 3.3 extra base hits per nine innings. It’s a pitching staff that, for the most part, does limit walks, giving up just 5.34 walks per nine innings, while they average 9.27 strikeouts per nine innings.

Tommies Players to Watch

1. OF Matthew Maulik – Although Matthew Maulik is not statistically the top offensive player for the Tommies this season, he is still my top player to watch in this game. The sophomore outfielder earned Second Team All-Summit League honors as a freshman last season, batting .343, with nine home runs, 44 RBI’s and 19 multi-hit games. He entered the portal over the offseason and the Iowa coaching staff reached out, but he opted to return to St Thomas. This season, in 30 starts, Maulik is slashing .336/.419/.509, with 39 hits, five doubles, five home runs and 32 RBI’s. He has tallied 12 multi-hit games and is currently riding a six-game hitting streak.

2. OF Joe Vos – A senior outfielder, Joe Vos is a veteran on the Tommies roster, appearing in 127 games over the course of his career, so he has played in his fair share of midweeks against Power 4 teams. The top hitter on the roster this season, in 33 games, Vos is slashing .353/.425/.597, with 42 hits, 11 doubles, six home runs and 26 RBI’s. He has tallied 12 multi-hit games and is currently riding a nine-game hitting streak that has included 14 total hits, with six going for extra bases.

3. 2B Tanner Recchio – Along with Matthew Maulik last season, second baseman Tanner Recchio was a standout freshman, earning Second Team All-Summit League honors. This season, one of two players to start all 33 games, Recchio is slashing .351/.438/.448, with 47 hits, eight doubles and 17 RBI’s. He’s the biggest stolen base threat for the Tommies, he leads the Summit League with 23 stolen bases. A really tough out, Recchio has tallied 17 multi-hit games and has struck out just 12 times in 158 plate appearances (7.6%).

Iowa Hawkeyes (27-12, 17-4)

With four weeks remaining in Big Ten play and just nine games left for the Hawkeyes, they find themselves with a 2.5-game lead over UCLA in the standings. The race for the regular season title is still up for grabs, but Iowa goes into their home series with Indiana this week with a chance to take another step closer to a regular season title.

The sweep of Michigan gave Iowa an incredible boost in the RPI, catapulting them 36 spots up the ladder to #57, however, the loss to WIU dropped them down to #69 heading into today’s contest. Still, there’s plenty more opportunity ahead, as 12 of their 15 remaining games come against teams inside the RPI top 100.

Entering Wednesday’s game, junior infielder Gable Mitchell still has the team in lead in batting average (.348) and total hits (55), while he has extended his on-base streak to 40 games. Meanwhile, catcher/designated hitter Reese Moore leads the way in extra base hits (21) and on-base percentage (.476). They Hawkeyes still lead the Big Ten in batting average (.310) and ERA (3.74), while they are second in on-base percentage (.419).

Final Thought

This is gut check time for the Hawkeyes. They get an immediate chance to wipe away the loss to Western Illinois with a bounce back performance against St Thomas tonight. While they loss to the Leathernecks wasn’t as devastating as it would have been in past seasons, it still makes tonight a must-win to get positive momentum going with Indiana coming to town this weekend. It won’t be easy, as St Thomas has an offense capable of putting runs on the board. That being said, this team has handled adversity well this year, particularly early in the season when not much was going right. I expect a much better effort tonight from Rick Heller’s team.