Pitchers Ty Langenberg and Dylan Nedved threw a combined 17 strikeouts in the Iowa baseball’s team 6-3 victory over No. 12 Texas Tech on Sunday.

Langenberg’s 10 strikeouts represented the most by a Hawkeye pitcher in the 2022 season. He started the game and lasted five innings.

“I would definitely say it was one of the days I felt my best,” Langenberg said. “Coming off of a little ankle injury last week, so it’s definitely good to be back and healthy. I’d say my fastball command today was the biggest thing.

“We knew that they were a big, physical team, especially the top part of the lineup, so I knew I would have to locate the fastball, and then just a slider. I knew if I could hit with my slider, just mixing those two up, it would be a good day.”

After Langenberg threw 91 pitches and allowed one earned run, Nedved took the mound in the sixth inning and pitched the final four frames. The senior allowed one hit, which was a two-run home run by Red Raider second baseman Jace Jung.

The Hawkeyes only walked two batters on Sunday, compared to eight walks on Saturday.

The Hawkeyes started their scoring in the third inning while they were down, 1-0. Shortstop Michael Seegers hit a sacrifice fly to center field, allowing catcher Ben Tallman to score from third base.

In the sixth inning, Seegers notched his second RBI on a double to right field. He later scored on an RBI groundout from right fielder Keaton Anthony.

Then, third baseman Andy Nelson plated the go-ahead score on a two-run home run off the left field scoreboard.

“Just everything was building up to that moment,” Nelson said. “Everybody was doing their jobs and we felt like we just need to break it open there. Luckily for me, it was my opportunity, my chance to do that up there.”

The sophomore hadn’t played since March 5 because of a hamstring injury. It was his first collegiate home run.

“It was what we always talk about, but hadn’t really done a lot this year,” Iowa head baseball coach Rick Heller said. “It was a get it done day, find a way regardless of who was out there, next man up mentality and go out and find a way to put a good game together and they did.”

Big picture

Iowa moved to 9-8 on the 2022 season, and the Hawkeyes notched their first win against a nonconference ranked opponent at home since No. 18 UC-Irvine in 2019.

They split the two-game series with the Red Raiders after falling 11-3 on Saturday.

Iowa has six more nonconference games in the 2022 season, including a three-game series with Central Michigan from March 25-27.

Ailments sideline Hawkeyes

Heller mentioned postgame that infielder Brendan Sher injured his knee on Saturday and couldn’t play in the rematch against the Red Raiders. Heller also said infielder Sam Hojnar was up all night with a stomach bug and wasn’t at Duane Banks Field.

Infielder Izaya Fullard, who was a third-team All-Big Ten selection in 2021, is recovering from surgery on a broken hamate. Fullard has competed once in 2022. He went 0-for-2 at the plate against UC Irvine on March 11.

Up next

Iowa will compete against St. Thomas in Iowa City at 4:05 p.m. on Monday.

The two programs were supposed to meet on March 9, but it was canceled because of the cold weather.