Iowa Baseball Rolls in B1G Tourney Opener

Hawkeyes Rally to Down Michigan, 13-3, Tuesday in Omaha

Iowa's Brayden Frazier celebrates hitting a grand slam on May 23, 2023 at the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha, Neb. (Iowa Baseball Twitter)

BOX SCORE

It's hard to think of Tuesday's opening day of the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha going better for Iowa Baseball. The Hawkeyes earned a day off tomorrow and saved pitchers in the process. 

Third-seeded Iowa ten-run ruled No. 6 Michigan, 13-3, at Schwab Field in eight innings. It advanced to meet the winner of Tuesday's Illinois and Indiana contest on Thursday morning. The Hawkeyes would have played again Wednesday had it lost the opener. 

Iowa (40-13) broke open a 1-1 game with six runs in the bottom of the fifth inning against the Wolverines (26-27). All runs in the frame came home after there were two outs. The rally was capped by Brayden Frazier's grand slam. 

A four-run Hawkeye seventh was powered by a Sam Petersen three-run home run. Cade Moss singled home Michael Seegers to end it in the eighth. 

Frazier and Petersen combined for five hits in nine at-bats with seven RBIs. Moss, Seegers and Sam Hojnar each banged out a pair of hits. The Hawkeyes touched up Big Ten Pitcher of the Year Connor O'Halloran for seven runs on seven hits in five innings. 

“Really proud of our guys and how they fought hard all day long,” Iowa coach Rick Heller said. “The first five innings we hit some balls hard but didn't get rewarded. We didn't have some things go our way, but we didn't play the victim and found a way to get it done. We kept to our plan, and finally broke through in the fifth.”

Marcus Morgan started on the mound for Iowa. He yielded one run on two hits and five walks with three strikeouts in four innings. Jack Whitlock (7-0) picked up the win with two frames of one-run relief with three punch-outs in the fifth. Luke Llewellyn (3 Ks) and Zach Voelker each tossed an inning. 

Heller pulled Morgan after 85 pitches, so the sophomore should be good to go again in this tournament if Iowa keeps advancing. The coach also didn't need to tax his bullpen Tuesday, a key to making a run in these events. 

“Marcus didn't have his cleanest start, but he was able to fight his way out of jams,” Heller said. “Jack had an extremely gutsy performance coming in and striking out the side with the bases loaded really shifted the momentum. Then the offense responded with six runs in the bottom of the inning with some big two-out hits.”

ALL-B1G HAWKEYES

Six Hawkeyes were named to the all-conference teams when the Big Ten announced them before Tuesday's action. 

Keaton Anthony, Brody Brecht and Sam Petersen earned first-team honors, Marcus Morgan and Brennen Dorighi landed on the second-team and junior Cade Moss was a third-teamer. Ben Wilmes was Iowa’s Big Ten Sportsmanship recipient.

GAME NOTES

• Iowa moves to 40-13 on the season and 16-9 in Big Ten play.
• This is the fifth time in program history that Iowa has reached 40 wins.
• The Hawkeyes have hit nine grand slams this season.
• Frazier’s grand slam was the first grand slam in the Big Ten Tournament since 2017, and the first grand slam in Big Ten Tournament history at Schwab Field.
• The Hawkeyes have scored 10+ runs 19 times this season and are 19-0 in those games.
• Iowa has ended seven games early via run rule this season.