By Jake Mosbach | [email protected]

With a stiff wind blowing out to left-center at Banks Field on Tuesday afternoon, the Hawkeye baseball team had the opportunity to send the ball flying.

Unfortunately for Northern Illinois, the Hawks did just that.

Iowa (10-12, 2-1 Big Ten) downed the Huskies (6-18), 12-3, launching four home runs in the process.

Big Ten Freshman of the Week Robert Neustrom began the homer parade in the bottom of the second with a 2-run blast — surprisingly against the wind to right field.

Senior shortstop Nick Roscetti crushed a solo home run to left in the bottom of the third. Catcher Daniel Aaron Moriel took his turn with a solo shot off the left-field video board, and senior first baseman Tyler Peyton house-broke the Huskies with a grand slam to left-center field in the sixth.

“Offensively, we had some big hits,” Hawkeye head coach Rick Heller said after the game. “Robert Neustrom had a good day with a home run and 4 RBIs, and then Tyler Peyton broke out with a grand slam to break the game open.”

Peyton, whose grand slam made the score at 12-1, said he couldn’t remember the last time he hit a grand slam. He estimated he was around 10 years old.

So when the ball left Peyton’s bat this time, he was skeptical. His skepticism, however, soon turned to elation.

“I thought it was going to be deep, but I just didn’t know if it would get over the wall or not,” he said. “I was half way to second when I found out it was gone. I was just going hard until I knew.”

During the sixth, the Hawkeyes collected 8 runs on just 2 hits. The team batted around.

Roscetti finished the day 2-for-5 with an RBI. The performance boosted his already astounding batting average from .360 to .363.

The Sherman, Illinois, native acknowledged that the wind blowing to left might have aided the Hawkeye long balls, but he credited his teammates for using fundamental hitting to put on the homer clinic.

“The wind probably helped a little bit,” Roscetti said with a smile. “But some people but some good swings on the ball … wind a little bit, but it was good.”

On the mound, Hawkeye senior Josh Martsching picked up the win, his first of the year (1-0). He pitched two perfect innings in the third and fourth. The right-hander struck out two Huskies and lowered his season ERA to 1.42.

Neustrom and Peyton led the team with 4 RBIs each, with Roscetti, Moriel, senior outfielder Joel Booker, and third baseman Mason McCoy each having RBIs of their own.

As the team shifts its focus to a three-game series with Minnesota this weekend, Roscetti realizes the challenge ahead and that he and his teammates can’t ride the high of this game for too long.

“[Minnesota] just took two of three from Missouri State, who swept us,” Roscetti said. “They’re going be a really good team, and it’ll be a good weekend.”

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