Iowa Baseball surges past Loras College in their midweek opener

Sometimes February 20th in Iowa City brings cold temps and snow on the ground. This year, temperatures were in the mid 50’s and the sun was out. That allowed the Iowa Baseball team to get out and face DIII Loras College for a midweek matchup at Duane Banks Field. The Hawkeyes took down the DuHawks 20-6 in the earliest home opener in program history.

“I was really pleased with how we played tonight. The first four innings were outstanding, everything that you wanted to see happen,” said Coach Rick Heller. “The guys that you’d hope would get some hits, got some hits. Played great defense, got good pitching, it was really solid. The energy was great. Our guys approached it the way we would expect.”

After somewhat of a slow start at the plate over the weekend in Charleston, Rick Heller was hoping to see his team come out, be aggressive and puts runs on the board. That’s exactly what his team did and it led to a lot of early runs.

“The thing I really liked was that we were super disciplined. They weren’t chasing (pitches),” said Heller. “Today, when we needed to be, we were getting our swings off when the pitchers were in the danger zone. Reese Moore is a great example, take (a pitch), take, take, guy makes a mistake, he hammers it. We had several guys, Huckstorf, I felt like he was very patient, but when he got a pitch he hammered it.”

Sam Petersen and Raider Tello got off to a hot start over the weekend at Shipyard Park and came up big right out of the gates on Tuesday. After Petersen reached base with a single in the first inning, Tello followed with a massive two-run home run over the left field wall to give the Hawkeyes an early 2-0 advantage.

Absolute bomb 💣@Domiraider1 hit that one 398 feet 👀#Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/63mMg5LwIa

— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) February 20, 2024

Two years ago, the DuHawks stunned Iowa at home, but today, the offense put up a crooked number in the second inning and quickly removed any thoughts of a duplicate performance. After a 1/13 weekend to open the year, Michael Seegers started the avalanche of runs, with a bases clearing double to make it 5-0. Sam Petersen followed with an RBI double that exited the bat at 109 mph, while Reese Moore and Ben Wilmes each had RBI doubles later in the inning. Gable Mitchell added on an RBI single to cap off an eight-run second inning. Iowa led 10-0 and never looked back.

“Just trying to keep stringing them together. I thought a lot of guys had really good days today headed into a big weekend for us,” said Sam Petersen. “Reese Moore is having a really big bat for us going into this weekend. There’s a lot of guys that built confidence today, which is really exciting.”

The Hawkeyes loaded the bases for a second time in the fourth inning with Kyle Huckstorf at the plate. If you’ve followed his career, you know he’s the guy you want at the plate. Huckstorf delivered his third career grand slam to make it 14-0 Iowa.

So nice you get to see it twice 😉

First 𝙂𝙍𝘼𝙉𝘿 𝙎𝙇𝘼𝙈 of the year for the #Hawkeyes by @KyleHuckstorf 💥 pic.twitter.com/5kmjeOlhMm

— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) February 20, 2024

“I wouldn’t really say a sense of relief,” said Huckstorf, who was just 2/11 at the plate over the weekend. “Made a couple of adjustments to my swing from Sunday to now and it’s feeling really good. Just show up the next day, with the same focus, same plan and just execute.”

Leading 16-1 in the seventh inning, Indian Hills transfer Merrick Mathews delivered an RBI double to score Andy Nelson. Then, in the eighth, Reese Moore added to his two-hit day with a two-run triple that exited the bat at 108 mph. Moore scored on a wild pitch and the Hawkeyes had their 20 run total.

“He’s worked really hard over the winter and he had to make some pretty big changes with his swing and he made them. It’s paying divdends right now and his confidence is back…super happy for Reese.”

On the mound, Rick Heller went with true freshman Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue for his first career start. He went 2.0 scoreless innings, including one strikeout. Cadieux-Lanoue threw 16 of his 25 (64.0%) pitches for strikes.

“Elliot really started the game off like a mature veteran and that’s how he has been since he arrived,” said Heller. “He is definitely more mature than his age. “

In relief, the Hawkeyes got scoreless outings from Chas Wheatley, Jack Young, Brant Hogue and Drew Deremer. The DuHawks were able to get six runs on seven hits over the last three innings of the game, but it was far too late. Loras 1B Daniel Rogers led the way with three hits for the DuHawks.

For the Hawkeyes, ten batters recorded a hit, while Reese Moore reached base five times, including three extra base hits and two walks. Sam Petersen recorded hits in all three of his at-bats, while Ben Wilmes had two hits, including a double. Merrick Mathews picked up his first career hit in an Iowa uniform and Connor Hennings got his first career RBI as a Hawkeye with a sacrifice fly.

“It was a really solid game for us and we got out of it everything that we had hoped,” said Heller. “We got everybody in the game on the position player side and a lot of hits, lot of barrels and hopefully a lot of guys are feeling a lot better about themselves heading down to Jacksonville.”

Up Next, the Hawkeyes head to Florida for the first ever Jax Baseball Classic. The opener on Friday comes against the Auburn Tigers at 121 Financial Park in Jacksonville. First pitch is set for 5:00pm CT and will be streamed by D1Baseball.