Iowa baseball took two of three games from No. 8 Rutgers in Piscataway, New Jersey, this weekend.

Hawkeye pitcher Adam Mazur recorded his second consecutive quality start on Friday afternoon, pitching eight innings with 11 strikeouts and one run earned in Iowa’s 4-1 victory. 

Rutgers crossed the plate once in the second inning, and Iowa then recorded four unanswered runs.

“Everything was clicking and having good defense behind me helped,” Mazur said via a Friday release. “After the second inning when we scored one and I wasn’t able to get the shutdown inning we needed, it lit a fire underneath me that I needed to keep going and push through.”

Mazur, who returned to the Friday night spot on April 15, has 22 strikeouts and zero walks over his past 16 innings on the mound. 

“Adam set the tone for us,” head coach Rick Heller said via release on Friday. “They got some decent swings in the first two innings, but after that, those were limited the rest of the game. He pounded the zone.  It’s hard not to play well behind a guy that goes out and was efficient as Adam was today and as dominant as he was today. I cannot say enough about him setting the tone in the series.”

Senior Izaya Fullard went 2-for-4 with a double and a home run on Friday night. 

Iowa cliched the series win on Saturday with a 12-2 victory at Bainton Field — the Hawkeyes’ first series victory over a top-10 team since 2018.  The Hawkeyes scored 12 runs on 13 hits while holding Rutgers to four hits.

Graduate transfer Connor Schultz another quality start for the Hawkeyes as he pitched eight innings with two hits and zero runs.

“This shows who we are,” Schultz said in a Saturday release. “Today and yesterday, this is the team we are. Going out today and showing it against a team like this is huge. It shows people how good we are.”

Rutgers recorded its only runs in the bottom of the ninth inning after Iowa put up a 12-run barrage.

“I am happy our guys have gone out and played to their capabilities,” Heller said in a Saturday release. “All year we’ve been dealing with this and that. We came out here and knew we were in for a big challenge against a good team that was in an awesome place and playing well.  Our guys embraced it and to this point that have put a chip on their shoulder and that’s a good thing.  It’s a good thing to see the fight.”

The Hawkeyes, however, could not complete the sweep, as they fell to the Scarlet Knights, 10-4, on Sunday afternoon. 

Rutgers recorded nine runs in the first four innings as Hawkeye pitcher Ty Langenberg made the start. Langenberg was pulled after one inning and eight batters faced, giving up four earned runs. Pitchers Duncan Davitt and Dylan Nedved allowed two and three runs, respectively.

The Hawkeyes attempted a comeback attempt, scoring single runs in the first, third, fourth, and ninth innings, but they couldn’t overcome the Scarlet Knights.

“We didn’t pitch well in first four innings and they swung it well today early, too,” Heller said in a Sunday release. “We weren’t very good on mound early and fell behind.  We tried to scratch back in but didn’t have a shutdown inning. We settled it down from fifth to the eighth and had a couple of opportunities but didn’t get the hit. Rutgers played well today and beat us.”

After the weekend, Iowa is 23-13 overall and 8-4 in the Big Ten. The Hawkeyes jumped 16 spots in the Rating Percentage Index, up to 57th.

Iowa will return to Duane Banks Field this week to host Western Illinois on Tuesday at 6 p.m. The Hawkeyes will head on the road again this weekend as Iowa will take on Nebraska in Lincoln.