Although the Iowa baseball team (17-17, 6-6 Big Ten) is one loss away from tying its total from a year ago, the panic meter has not started to tick.

After dropping two of three at Indiana from April 15-Sunday, the Hawkeyes have already surpassed their number of losses in conference play in 2015.

“I don’t think the pressure starts to mount at all,” head coach Rick Heller said. “I think we came back from Indiana feeling pretty good about ourselves, being able to come back on Sunday and get a win on the road against a team that was playing really well against us.”

Now, for the first time since March, Iowa will square off against a ranked opponent with No. 18 Michigan traveling to Banks Field this weekend.

Michigan (26-9, 6-2 Big Ten) is riding a five-game winning streak, having swept Nebraska a week ago and taking a midweek game from Toledo on Wednesday.

“They’re a talented team,” Heller said. “They have a lot of good players back, lot of good new players. They played really well early, then hit a little down period once conference started for them. But they picked it back up this past weekend with Nebraska.”

Iowa will see a handful of left-handers on the mound for Michigan, the same three hurlers who faced off against the Hawkeyes in Ann Arbor last year.

All three Wolverine starters — Brett Adcock, Oliver Jaskie, and Evan Hill — have 4 or more wins and ERAs of 2.86 or lower.

Adcock, tonight’s starter, has been on the Hawkeyes’ radar all week.

“We talk about the Friday-night pitcher pretty early on in the week and prepare for him in practice,” senior catcher Jimmy Frankos said. “And then, we usually get our scouting reports either Wednesday or Thursday.”

The Hawkeyes took two of three from the Wolverine starters a year ago, and they will try to do the same this year, at a time when they desperately need something to jump-start them into the final portion of the schedule.

Sitting at 6-6 and sixth place in the Big Ten, the Hawkeyes would like to climb in the standings to better their position in the Big Ten Tournament.

With a ranked Michigan team sitting ahead of them in the standings coming to town, the implications of this series are clear.

“Each [series] is obviously going to be the biggest with us trying to make a jump ahead of .500 and, hopefully, take that momentum into the conference tournament,” Heller said. “With that being said, every series is a big one, but this is probably the biggest one to this point.”

If Iowa hopes to grab a couple wins against Michigan, it will need to get a big contribution from senior shortstop Nick Roscetti, who was just named to the Brooks Wallace Award Watch List, handed out annually to the nation’s best shortstop.

Roscetti has slumped at the plate since his team opened up Big Ten play, but a move down in the order against Indiana may have started him in the right direction.

Even if the hits don’t come for Roscetti, he plans to do everything necessary to get Iowa into the win column.