Iowa baseball transfer Adam Mazur was surprised to hear he earned the spot as the Hawkeyes’ ace.

Mazur beat Butler transfer Connor Schultz, freshman Marcus Morgan, and returning Hawkeye starter Cam Baumann for the Friday night position.

“Honestly, with how deep our pitching staff was coming in, I was a little bit [surprised],” Mazur said at Iowa baseball’s media day on Feb. 10. “That’s something I wanted though, coming into the decision, is to be able to go out and earn a Friday spot. So, I’m happy I earned it. But then again, it was tough, because there’s a lot of great competition out here and a lot of depth at pitching.”

Mazur, who transferred to Iowa from South Dakota State in fall 2021, was the Jacks’ ace for two seasons in the Summit League. The redshirt sophomore went 2-7 in the 2021 season with a 5.43 ERA.

The pitcher out of Woodbury, Minnesota, said he didn’t have any issues transitioning from South Dakota State baseball to Iowa. Iowa baseball had 22 newcomers of its roster of 44 for the 2022 season — 10 freshmen and 12 transfers.

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“The guys that were returners were very welcoming,” Mazur said. “And we had 20 or so new guys. So, it was pretty nice not being the only new guy, but the returners did a great job accepting us right away, and we got to work on team bonding.”

When deciding on a new school, Mazur said technology was one of the most important factors that drew him to the Iowa baseball program. When Heller became head coach in 2013, the Hawkeyes started to invest in technology similar to that of Major League Baseball.

Iowa has Trackman and Rapsodo to help pitchers— devices that use radar technology to track metrics like spin rate and axis, as well as release speed and height.

“I knew that if I wanted to reach my full potential I needed to go somewhere that had access to a lot more technology and places I could develop a lot better,” Mazur said.

“It has completely flipped my fastball,” he added. “It plays a lot better in the zone now, and I’m able to throw a lot more efficiently. I’ve also been mixing and matching with a couple different pitches and it’s really helped my changeup to kind of deaden the spin.”

While Mazur is the Hawkeyes’ Friday night starter to begin the season, head coach Rick Heller said the starting pitching rotation will be fluid throughout Iowa’s first neutral tournaments. Heller said Mazur will start on Fridays, Schultz will start Saturdays, and Morgan will start Sundays. For the time being, Heller said, Baumann will be in the bullpen.

Schultz is a graduate transfer from Butler and went 2-5 as a weekend starter in 2021 with a 6.22 ERA. Morgan is a true freshman out of Iowa City West High School, and posted a career record of 21-5.

“We’ve got a lot of guys that are really battling for those three weekend spots,” Heller said. “And we thought about attacking the first three weekends since they’re neutral site tournaments …  since it’s early, that gives us the opportunity to kind of bookend with some other guys, so it’s almost like a double start in those games.”

Mazur will get his first opportunity to pitch as a Hawkeye in the Swig and Swine Classic in Charleston, South Carolina, this weekend. Iowa will take on Air Force to open the 2021-22 season.