The Iowa baseball team defeated the Grand View Vikings, 12-1, Wednesday night at Duane Banks Field. 

The Hawkeyes started the game strong with two runs in the first inning, as junior Michael Seegers tripled to start the game, then junior Kyle Huckstorf drove him in when he grounded out to third.

Graduate student Brennan Dorighi then doubled to left field and sophomore Keaton Anthony brought him in with a double of his own.

Anthony started on the mound in his fifth pitching appearance of the year and kept the Vikings hitless through his two innings of work. 

Anthony, who was mainly an outfielder and first baseman during his redshirt freshman season a year ago, has already logged 13.2 innings on the bump this season after just two frames all of last season.

“It felt good, I love taking the mound,” Anothony said postgame. “I love taking the field with everybody behind me.” 

The Hawkeyes broke the game open with four more runs in the fifth inning to push the lead to 6-0. Dorighi led off the inning with a single through the right side and advanced to second on a wild pitch. After Anthony walked, sophomore Raider Tello reached on a fielder’s choice, as Anthony was thrown out at second and Dorighi advanced to third. 

A one-out double from Sam Petersen advanced Tello to third and allowed Dorighi to score. Both runners on base would end up scoring with a triple from junior Sam Hojnar in the next at-bat.

Iowa would tack on three more runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, and two in the eighth to close the game out.

The Hawkeyes totaled 13 hits on the night.

“I thought we hit a lot of balls hard,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said. “We didn’t have a lot to show for it early, but it gave our pitchers some insurance and we were able to break it open.”

 The Iowa pitchers were efficient against Grand View, holding the Vikings to one run on four hits total. Iowa trotted out nine different pitchers in the final seven innings Wednesday.

“We got a lot of guys in to pitch who hadn’t been out there in a while, and I thought they really handled themselves well,” Heller said. “We wanted to get a lot of guys in the game.”

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The win improved Iowa to 16-3 on the season — the best in the Big Ten — and extended the Hawkeyes’ win streak to six games.

Iowa will start conference play next weekend against a solid Maryland team with a 12-8 overall record. 

Up next

The Hawkeyes will take on Western Michigan this weekend at Duane Banks Field in a three-game set. Friday’s game is scheduled to begin at 4:05 p.m., Saturday’s first pitch is set for 2:05 p.m., and Sunday’s contest starts at 1:05. All games can be streamed on BTN Plus. Western Michigan is currently 5-13 on the season.