Iowa Baseball: Swig & Swine College Classic Preview

Iowa Baseball is officially back. The Hawkeyes are set to get underway tomorrow afternoon down in Charleston, SC against the Seton Hall Pirates at 4:00pm. Before we get to that game, read up on the opponents for the three-game weekend. HawkeyeReport has your Swig & Swine College Classic preview.

PROBABLE PITCHING MATCHUPS

Friday vs Seton Hall: Jr RHP Brody Brecht vs Jr RHP Daniel Frontera

There’s a lot of excitement surrounding this Friday season-opening start from Brody Brecht. He finished last season with a 3.74 ERA, including 109 strikeouts to 61 walks over 77.0 innings. The important thing to note? Brody got a full offseason to work with pitching coach Sean McGrath after moving to baseball only last spring. Get ready for Act I from Brody Brecht.

Daniel Frontera will get the start for the Pirates after making 14 starts last season. He finished with a 6.09 ERA, including 38 strikeouts to 26 walks over 57.2 innings. He isn’t going to put many guys on base, with a 10.0% walk rate, but his low 14.6% strikeout rate means that teams put their bat on the ball just over 75% of the time. In a season-opener where the Iowa hitters are going to be extra juiced to swing the bat, a pitcher that is going to be around the zone is a good matchup. Opponents batted .293 against Frontera last season, including a .324 average on balls put in play.

Saturday vs Ball State: Jr RHP Marcus Morgan vs Jr RHP Logan Schulfer

Marcus Morgan started a handful of Friday games last season, including the NCAA Regional opener against North Carolina. This season, he starts the year on Saturday and will have a test against the Ball State Cardinals. Marcus finished last season with a 3.72 ERA, including 72 strikeouts to 51 walks over 65.1 innings.

Logan Schulfer appeared in a team-high 22 games last season, with four starts. He posted an 8.10 ERA, including 60 strikeouts to 41 walks over 46.2 innings. His numbers may remind you of something that you have seen at Iowa over the last two seasons, with a 25.8% strikeout rate, but a 17.6% walk rate. Opponents batted .246 against him, but that number jumped to .322 on balls in play. He has good stuff according to D1Baseball, mentioning a fastball that gets up to 95, as well as a slider in the low-mid 80’s.

Sunday vs Lehigh: Soph RHP Cade Obermueller vs Sr RHP Teddy Tolliver

The coaching staff has been impressed with the strides that sophomore Cade Obermueller has made since last season ended and that earned him the Sunday start. He finished last season with a 4.91 ERA, including 36 strikeouts to 34 BB/HBP over 22.0 innings. Rick Heller said that he feels Cade is on a similar path as Brody/Marcus and may even be a little bit ahead of where they were at this time in 2023.

Teddy Tolliver will get the start for the Mountain Hawks on Sunday, after starting 11 games last season. He posted a respectable 3.61 ERA, including 32 strikeouts to 16 walks over 42.1 innings. Similar to the matchup on Friday, Tolliver isn’t going to blow you away with strikeout upon strikeout (16.6% K rate), but he doesn’t give up many free passes (8.3% BB rate). D1Baseball says his fastball only reaches into the upper 80’s, so it will be a different look for the Hawkeye hitters to go against after seeing mid 90’s on Saturday.

Seton Hall Pirates (31-24 in 2023)

Last season, Seton Hall finished with a 31-24 overall record, including a 13-8 mark in Big East play. That earned them a trip to the four-team Big East Tournament, but they went 0-2. The Pirates went 3-7 against NCAA Tournament teams, including a series win over Xavier. Seton Hall was picked third in the preseason Big East coaches poll.

Four Pirates to Watch

1. DH/C Staus Pokrovsky

The top power hitter in the Pirates lineup, designated hitter Staus Pokrovsky earned First Team All-Big East honors last season. He batted .295, including seven doubles, a team-leading 11 home runs and 43 RBI’s. Like many power hitters, however, Pokrovsky has a tendency to strikeout. He finished with a 22.8% strikeout rate compared to a 7.8% walk rate. That being said, he is a dangerous hitter to face and had 14 multi-hit games.

2. SS Max Viera

The top returning overall hitter in the Seton Hall lineup, shortstop Max Viera was a First Team All-Big Ten selection last season and was picked as a preseason All-Big East player this season. Viera batted .319, leading the team in hits (69), doubles (17) and RBI’s (46), while he also hit five home runs. He struck out just 14.0% of the time and had 20 multi-hit games, so he will be a tough out. When he gets on base, Viera can be a threat there, racking up 23 stolen bases last season.

3. CF Devin Hack

A First Team All-Big East selection and a preseason All-Big East honoree, Devin Hack started 54 of 55 games last season in center field. At the plate, Hack batted .313 with a .409 on-base percentage, including seven doubles. He finished with 28 walks to 25 strikeouts and racked up 25 stolen bases. Not a guy that is going to slug the ball around the park (14.5% extra base hit rate), but he was just one of three players with 60+ hits on the team last year and had 19 multi-hit games.

4. 3B Pat D’Amico

Starting at the hot corner for Seton Hall, Pat D’Amico batted .284, with a .378 on-base percentage last season. He finished with 11 doubles and five home runs over 45 starts. D’Amico had 12 multi-hit games and finished the season with a hit in 16 of his last 18 games. He was named to the All-Big East Tournament team.

Ball State Cardinals (36-23 in 2023)

The Cardinals finished last season with a 36-23 record, including a 19-11 mark in MAC play. They entered the MAC Tournament as a three seed and defeated top seed Kent State twice to earn a trip to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2006. Ball State went 0-2 in the Lexington Regional, with losses to Kentucky and West Virginia. The Cardinals are picked to finish second in the preseason MAC coaches poll.

Four Cardinals to Watch

1. OF Decker Scheffler

Not only was Decker Scheffler a First Team All-MAC selection last season, he was pegged as the preseason MAC Player of the Year by D1Baseball. Scheffler ranked fourth in the conference with a .378 batting average and put up a .451 on-base percentage. He finished with 13 doubles, three triples, eight home runs and 48 RBI’s. Decker is going to make a lot of contact, as he had a 9.9% walk rate and a 9.9% strikeout rate last season. This could be the toughest hitter the Hawkeyes face this weekend.

2. 3B Michael Hallquist

A transfer from Minnesota-Crookston, Michael Hallquist batted .406 for the Golden Eagles last season, including 20 doubles, 22 home runs and 65 RBI’s. An impressive season, but that was at the DII level. Over the summer, Hallquist played for the Duluth Huskies in the Northwoods League and proved himself as a DI level player. He was named Northwoods Player of the Year, batting .355, with 19 doubles and a league-leading 15 home runs. This is a player that the Hawkeye pitching staff has to be aware of.

3. 1B Blake Bevis

The Cardinals lost their top two hitters in terms of hits and Blake Bevis will be leaned on to up his batting average this season. Bevis batted .273, but was second on the team in doubles (14) and home runs (11). The one area that Iowa pitchers need to take advantage of is his strikeout rate. He struck out 47 times, while his 2.8% walk rate is impressively low.

4. C Hunter Dobbins

As a true freshman in 2022, Hunter Dobbins batted .339, with four doubles and eight home runs in just 29 games. Last season, he saw his average drop to .209, including four doubles and nine home runs over 55 games. Behind the plate, Dobbins was named to the All-MAC Defensive Team. As for this season, D1Baseball reported that Hunter hit six home runs and drove in 35 runs during the fall, so he may be trending back towards his freshman season self, which would make him a tough out.

Lehigh Mountain Hawks (23-26 in 2023)

Lehigh finished last season with a 23-26 overall record, including a 10-15 mark in Patriot League play. They tied for fourth in the league, but lost out on a spot in the conference tournament due to tiebreakers. The Mountain Hawks went 1-5 against NCAA Tournament teams, with their lone win coming late in the year against Army. They are picked to finish fourth in the preseason Patriot League coaches poll.

Four Mountain Hawks to Watch

1. 3B Rafe Perich

Standing at 6’3, switch-hitting third baseman Rafe Perich is the top returning hitter for the Mountain Hawks. He batted .307 last season, including a team-high 19 doubles, six home runs and 47 RBI’s. He was second on the team with 62 hits and proved to be a tough out all of last year with a 6.0% strikeout rate. Perich racked up 17 multi-hit games and struck out just eight times over his last 43 games.

2. OF Andrew Kohl

As a sophomore last season, Andrew Kohl started 35 games in the outfield for Lehigh. At the plate, Kohl batted .309, with a .407 on-base percentage, including four doubles, nine home runs and 28 RBI’s. He racked up 12 multi-hit games, despite playing starting just 35 of the teams 49 games. On the flip side, Kohl had 13 multi-strikeout games, which gave him a team-high 33.1% strikeout rate.

3. OF Jack Whitlinger

The leadoff hitter in the Lehigh lineup, Jack Whitlinger has started 91 games over his first two seasons with the program, racking up 19 doubles and three home runs over that time frame. Last season, Whitlinger batted .279 and had 14 multi-hit games. Interesting to note, Whitlinger has led the team in hit by pitches the last two seasons, with 16 as a freshman and ten last year. On the base paths, he is a threat as well, accumulating 16 stolen bases a year ago.

4. DH Justin Butler

You could have gone with preseason All-Patriot League shortstop Tyler Young here (remember that name too), but designated hitter Justin Butler did a lot of damage in limited at-bats last season. He dealt with injuries that limited him to just 23 games (20 starts), but still managed to hit seven home runs in just 69 at-bats. His strikeout rate was high at 23.8%, but the power is there in his bat.

Weekend Outlook

Set the over/under for the weekend at 2.5 wins. The Hawkeyes will be favored in all three games, but Saturday’s matchup against Ball State will not be an easy one to win. I think Rick Heller’s squad comes away with wins in the season-opener and the weekend finale, which means will come down to the matchup against the Cardinals for a potential opening weekend sweep. If the Iowa pitching staff stays on schedule and doesn’t give up free bases, they will be a tough group to beat on hits alone.

Up Next, the Hawkeyes will take on Seton Hall in the season-opener tomorrow evening. First pitch on Friday is set for 4:00pm CT at Shipyard Park in Charleston, SC. On Saturday, Iowa will face Ball State, with an 11:00am CT first pitch. On Sunday, the Hawkeyes will wrap up the weekend against Lehigh, with an early morning first pitch at 9:00am CT. All three games will be streamed on HiCast Sports Network.