Iowa Baseball Reaches B1G Final

Iowa has taken the shortest route to the Big Ten baseball tournament championship game, and the Hawkeyes have done it with pitching and timely hitting.

The latest win, Saturday’s 5-0 victory over Michigan, was a masterpiece by starting pitcher Ty Langenberg, and it has the Hawkeyes on the cusp of a title.

Iowa (42-13) will play in Sunday’s 2 p.m. championship game against either Maryland or Nebraska.

A breakdown of Saturday’s win, the second over Michigan in the tournament.

LANGENBERG’S SHOW: Langenberg was virtually untouchable, a seven-inning show in which he allowed just two hits while walking two and striking out nine.

Langenberg allowed a first-inning single and a seventh-inning single, retiring 12 consecutive Wolverines during one stretch.

The lone inning in which he faced the most traffic was in the seventh, when the Wolverines had runners on first and second with one out. Langenberg got out of it with a double play, and after throwing 107 pitches (67 for strikes), his day was done.

That kind of length allowed Iowa coach Rick Heller to save a lot of his pitching staff for Sunday’s winner-take-all game — three relievers threw just 33 pitches over the final two innings.

FIRST RUN: Iowa got its first run in the third inning.

Brayden Frazier opened the inning with a single, and was bunted to second by Cade Moss. Sam Petersen was intentionally walked with two outs, then Brennen Dorighi walked. Raider Tello was then hit by a pitch, bringing in Frazier.

ONE RUN IN THE SIXTH: Iowa took a 2-0 lead in the sixth inning.

Michael Seegers singled with two outs, and advanced to second on an errant pickoff throw. Kyle Huckstorf then tripled to center field, scoring Seegers.

BREAKING THE GAME OPEN: The Hawkeyes took control of the game in the seventh inning.

Moss singled to open the inning, then moved up on Ben Wilmes’ sacrifice bunt. Petersen was intentionally walked, then Dorighi singled to left field to drive in Moss. Petersen and Dorighi successfully executed a double steal.

Tello’s single scored Petersen, then Dorighi scored on a sacrifice fly from Sam Hojnar to wrap up the scoring.

MAKING EVERYTHING COUNT: Iowa had just six hits — Huckstorf’s triple was the only extra-base hit — and took advantage of six Michigan walks.

Iowa limited the Wolverines’ free bases. Langenberg walked two and hit a batter. Reliever Chas Wheatley walked one and hit one batter.

LOCKING IT DOWN: Iowa reliever Luke Llewellyn has become quite reliable on the back end.

Llewellyn came in after Wheatley opened the ninth without getting an out. Llewellyn struck out all three hitters he faced to end the game.

WHAT IT MEANS: The Hawkeyes came into the tournament with a seemingly solid spot in the NCAA tournament field, but what they’ve done this week in Omaha has strengthened their postseason chances, and certainly enhanced a higher seeding.

Iowa has been a consensus three-seed in the various mock brackets.