By Pete Ruden  | [email protected]

Iowa baseball will take its second-straight Big Ten road trip this weekend when it faces Nebraska in Lincoln.

Nebraska enters the three-game series second in the Big Ten standings with a 4-1-1 conference record, 20-11-1 overall.

Playing against a high level of competition in what should be a tightly contested battle, Iowa has momentum coming off of a 4-1 win over Western Illinois. The win featured good pitching and few mistakes, a good sign heading into another weekend of conference play.

While the Leathernecks may not be a marquee opponent, the Hawkeyes aren’t focusing on that.“I don’t think it really matters who we’re playing,” designated hitter Austin Guzzo said. “Corbin Woods said it best. We’re playing the baseball. We’re not playing the other team. We’re trying to beat the baseball.

“Nebraska’s a good team. They always have been. They’re playing good baseball right now, but I think if we take care of what we need to take care of, I think we’re going to do a great job and come out with a series win. I think we all have enough confidence to do that.”

Head coach Rick Heller has stressed free bases as an important part of the game. While walks helped Iowa pick up a 14-2 victory against Northwestern on April 7, walks came back to haunt Iowa on April 8 to snap its eight-game winning streak.

“A big reason we got beat on Saturday and Sunday was that we gave up a lot of free bases on the mound, and [Tuesday] we didn’t,” Heller said. “When you give up a lot of free bases, there usually an ‘L’ on the other side of the column, and when you don’t, it’s usually a ‘W.’ The value of the free base was talked about quite a bit before the game [Tuesday].”

With Nick Gallagher, Ryan Erickson, and Cole McDonald set to take the mound on Friday, Saturday, and April 16, Iowa hopes that walk rate will decrease.

All three have put up satisfactory starts at different points in the season, while Gallagher has been the leader. In seven starts, he has racked up a 4-1 record with 41 strikeouts in 46 innings. He has also only walked 8 and hit 1 in that time span.

Heller, in his fourth year with the Hawkeyes, has also emphasized the players always coming to the ballpark ready to go with a good mindset. After having time to prepare for the Nebraska series on Wednesday and Thursday, it seems as if Heller’s words have rubbed off on his team.

“Hopefully, everybody’s mindset is going to be the same,” said pitcher Elijah Wood, who started his first career game against Western Illinois on Wednesday. “We can just compete. We can’t give up any free bases. Just got to be ready to go. [Nebraska’s] a pretty solid team from what I’ve heard, and we just got to be ready for it.”