The Iowa baseball team is playing with a lot on the line this week in Omaha at the Big Ten Tournament.

If the Hawkeyes plan to make the NCAA Tournament, nothing short of winning the Big Ten Tournament will do.

With an 11-0 win against Maryland in the semifinals, they are one win away from making it happen.

Sure, the Hawkeyes want to win May 29 to get that automatic bid. Yes, it would be nice to get some national exposure after winning the Big Ten Tournament title as a No. 8 seed.

But more than anything, Iowa head coach Rick Heller said his Hawkeyes want to win because they’re just having too much fun together.

“We want to keep playing the game together,” Heller said. “This team has a good culture, this program has a good culture. We don’t want it to end. We want a chance to keep playing games together … so you’re seeing a bunch of guys fighting, but they’re not fighting with panic, they’re fighting because they really enjoy playing the game and enjoy playing with each other, and they want a chance to keep playing next week.”

The team has adopted “HellerBall,” a style of play that puts importance on getting quality at-bats from everybody in the lineup and stringing long innings together at the plate, ultimately wearing down the opposing pitching staff.

In its blowout semifinal win, Iowa played HellerBall to perfection, getting RBIs from seven players and hits from eight. Freshman Zach Daniels, the only Iowa starter without a hit, walked three times.

It is the same thing they have done all year, but balls are starting to drop when they are hitting and balls are missing bat barrels when they are pitching.

“Whenever someone gets something going, we’re a team that follows,” freshman Robert Neustrom said. “We have players who back their teammates up … we’re playing the same game we’ve played all year, we’re just playing it a lot more relaxed. It’s a lot more fun. If you look at us, I’m sure all you can tell we’re having fun out there. That comes back to HellerBall, too, it’s gritty, get it done, have fun.”

Heller said in his postgame press conference that there was a late-night debate on who was going to start the semifinal game on the mound. Senior Calvin Mathews and sophomore Nick Gallagher, who have had the most innings as day three guys this year, were the obvious options.

The Hawkeye coaching staff ultimately decided to go with freshman Shane Ritter, who made only his second start of his career. Heller wanted to save Mathews for a possible elimination game later in the day, and Gallagher has been better coming out of the bullpen.

Ritter got through three innings of scoreless ball before being lifted for Gallagher, who put together his best outing of the year.

An infield hit to the third batter he faced was followed by five straight hitless innings for Gallagher, shutting the door on Maryland’s season and opening the door to a championship-game berth for the Hawkeyes.

“I don’t know what it is; I feel comfortable [coming out of the bullpen],” Gallagher said. “I just try to come in and stop the rally right there where it is and try to settle in after that.

“Earlier in the year when I faced Maryland, we threw a lot of sliders and pitched backwards against them. The same was true today. It was a lot of first pitch breaking stuff, and then I pitched off that.”

The Hawkeyes have fared extremely well on the mound in Omaha, using only seven pitchers in three games. It will more than likely be Mathews or senior Ryan Erickson who gets the start in the championship game, and it will be all hands on deck after that. Heller even said he hasn’t ruled out starter C.J. Eldred, who picked up the win in Iowa’s opening round victory over Minnesota.

“We’ll just kind of watch what happens and try to play the best matchups,” Heller said. “I don’t know that you’ll see anybody for a real long time, that’s just kind of how we do it.”

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