Iowa ace Jarred Hippen earned Big Ten Pitcher of the Week honors after throwing a one-hit gem against Minnesota on April 29.

The junior from Rock Falls, Ill., struck out two and faced just one batter over the minimum — although that batter, Gopher center fielder Troy Larson, handed Hippen the loss when he scored the game’s only run. Larson tripled down the right-field line to lead off the fourth inning, and left fielder Justin Gominsky drove him in one batter later with a sacrifice fly.

Hippen (2-5, 3.39 ERA) threw just 72 pitches over eight innings in Iowa’s first one-hitter since 1998. He said he was primarily throwing his two-seam fastball, and he used the Gophers’ aggressive plate approach to his advantage as he retired 17 batters with three pitches or fewer.

"They were just chasing and chasing and chasing, no matter how many times they got out," he said. "I kept throwing the same pitches, and I guess what you learn is, you don’t need a strikeout to get outs. You can get outs the first two pitches in [the at-bat] and be efficient."

Hippen shared Pitcher of the Week honors on May 21, 2010, and he joins Trevor Willis (Player of the Week, March 7) and Nick Brown (Pitcher of the Week, March 21) as the only Hawkeyes to earn one of the conference’s weekly awards in the 2011season.

— by Seth Roberts