By Blake Dowson
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College baseball teams spend hours each week pouring over film and past game logs trying to get an edge on their opponents through scouting.
Spray charts from past matchups, pitching logs, matchups against common opponents, and even box scores in next day’s newspaper can attribute to a scouting report.
The Iowa baseball team will travel to Bradley today to take on the Braves in yet another pivotal midweek game.
Here is a look into what the Braves saw when they started scouting the Hawkeyes.
Center Fielder Joel Booker
Senior Joel Booker is the heart and soul of the Iowa lineup. The leadoff man for the Hawkeyes contains as much pop in his bat as anyone on the team. Booker couples his power at the plate with incredible speed and is equally likely to drop down a bunt for a base hit as he is leave the yard.
He is not a typical leadoff man in regards to working at-bats. Booker likes to sit first pitch fastball and makes pitchers pay if he gets one in the zone.
Booker is every bit as good on defense and on the base paths as he is in the batter’s box. The rangy center fielder has accumulated 77 putouts on the year while only committing one error, and he has 11 steals on 12 attempts. He is a true five-tool guy.
Shortstop Nick Roscetti
The second-best bat on the team much of the season has been Roscetti. The senior shortstop had a hitting streak of 15 games earlier in the season and was hitting over .400 well into the spring.
Roscetti has slumped considerably in the Big Ten slate, however, and has struggled to find holes. You can beat Roscetti by pounding the outside part of the plate; he does not like to hit the ball to the right side.
A move down in the lineup seemed to have helped him last weekend. Roscetti, who has hit in the 3-hole all year, hit in the seventh and sixth spots in the order on April 16 and Sunday versus Indiana and collected 6 hits in the final two games of the series.
On the defensive side, Roscetti uses his strong arm and big frame to eat up most ground balls hit his way. He is not known to make the spectacular play, but he is very solid, posting a .978 fielding percentage.
Friday Starter C.J. Eldred
Eldred, the son of former Major League pitcher and Hawkeye star Cal Eldred, has some of his dad in him. The sophomore Indiana-transfer has been Iowa’s best pitcher this year, posting a 2.70 ERA dueling against some of the best teams in the Big Ten.
The sophomore is an imposing figure on the mound, standing at 6-1 and 220 pounds with a wide set of shoulders.
Eldred has good command of his fastball and an off-speed pitch that buckles a lot of knees.
Hawkeye Bullpen
The bullpen has been the weakest component of the team this year. Head coach Rick Heller is yet to find a closer, and no bridge to a ninth-inning guy if one ever emerges. Left-handed junior Ryan Erickson has come on strong recently, showing a lot of movement on all of his pitches in a long-relief role.
The Hawkeyes had a promising freshman in Sam Lizarraga, but the tall righty was taken out of a game last weekend with elbow pain and has not pitched since. Lizarraga had posted a 0.79 ERA in 11.1 innings this year, giving up only 6 hits while striking out 12.
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