The Iowa baseball team will open the 2013 season today with the first of a three-game series against Austin Peay in Clarksville, Tenn.

Austin Peay went 40-24 last season and qualified for the NCAA Tournament. The Hawkeyes lost to the Governors, 4-3, in 10 innings at the Austin Peay/Riverview Inn Classic in the only time the teams met last season.

Taking the mound for the Hawkeyes will be sophomore southpaw Sasha Kuebel. The native of St. Louis was named to the preseason All-Big Ten team earlier this month after going 6-0 with a 2.67 ERA last season.

The other starting pitchers for the Black and Gold in the series will be senior left-hander Matt Dermody and freshman Calvin Matthews.

Dermody struggled last season, going 1-7 with a 4.50 ERA. Matthews was the 2012 Iowa High School Athletics Association Baseball Player of the Year after going 15-1 with a 0.66 ERA while striking out 176 batters for Davis County High School.

Matthews and Kuebel won’t be the only underclassmen taking the field for the Black and Gold early in the season. The team has 24 underclassmen on the 33-man roster and every position but catcher will be played by a sophomore or freshman.

The lone veteran on the field will be senior Dan Sheppard playing backstop. Sheppard had four multi-hit games last season and drove in 10 runs.

The Hawkeyes won their previous season-opener, 7-5 over Pittsburgh, and they are 5-4 in season-openers under 10th-year head coach Jack Dahm.