By Adam Hensley
Midweek baseball will return to Banks Field today at 3 p.m.
The Hawkeyes (4-3) will host Cornell College (0-0) in their second home game of the early season. Admission to today’s game is free.
So far this season for Iowa, comebacks are king.
Against Morehead State on Sunday, the Hawkeyes dug themselves a 3-0 hole after the first inning.
Iowa answered with 6 runs in the bottom of the second, and each time the Beakers cut the lead to 1, the Hawkeyes had a response.
Strong pitching from the bullpen plus a strong defense meant the Hawkeyes came out on top, 14-7.
“Defensively, it was another strong game,” head coach Rick Heller said in a release. “We weren’t sharp on the mound [Sunday], but I was proud of how the guys fought back after we fell behind early.”
Mason McCoy and Chris Whelan led Iowa’s offensive charge.
McCoy recorded 2 hits and 4 RBIs in 4 at-bats, while Whelan connected for 3 hits and 2 RBIs in the same number of times at the plate.
The day before Iowa’s clash with Morehead State, the Hawkeyes were mired in another deficit, this time against Alabama State.
Down 2-0 after three, Iowa erupted for 15 hits (a season high) in a 9-2 win.
Austin Guzzo homered for the first time this season in the win.
More importantly, his deep shot extended Iowa’s lead to 3 runs.
“Everyone was seeing it well, even balls that were mishit were hit well,” Guzzo said in a release. “Everyone stuck to the right approach, and I think this will be when the bats start clicking for us.”
Eleven different Hawkeyes connected on a hit against the Hornets.
Iowa has taken advantage of early leads this season, too.
In Iowa’s first home game of the season on Feb. 22, the Hawkeyes took advantage of a rare 70-degree February afternoon. They jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first and never looked back, taking down Loras, 8-1.
Matt Hoeg’s 3-run triple gave pitcher Grant Judkins a favorable cushion in his first start, and win, of his Hawkeye career.
Iowa faced Cornell in 2015 and walked away with a 9-1 victory.
The Hawkeyes limited the Rams to 2 hits in the game. Thanks to Nick Gallagher, a freshman at the time.
Josh Martsching closed out the game, pitching in the eighth inning and collecting 2 strikeouts to seal the deal.
Last season, Cornell finished 22-16.
The Rams compiled an impressive midseason stretch during the end of March through mid-April, going 14-1.
Walker Breard will be a player to keep an eye on during today’s game. Cornell’s sophomore Male Athlete of the Year recipient last season, Breard was a first-team All-Midwest Conference South Division player, compiling 54 hits, 51 RBIs, and 10 home runs in 37 games.
Following the game at Banks Field, the Hawkeyes will travel to Minneapolis for the DQ Classic. Iowa will face Hawaii on Friday (noon), Oral Roberts on Saturday (1 p.m.), and Minnesota on March 5 (3 p.m.).
The last time the Gophers and Hawkeyes met was in the Big Ten Tournament last spring in Omaha; Iowa jumped all over No. 1 seed Minnesota for a 8-2 opening-round victory.