The Iowa baseball team earned a dominating 20-6 victory over the Loras Duhawks on Tuesday. The game was the earliest home opener in Hawkeye program history, as the unusually warm Iowa weather allowed for the game to be scheduled last week.
Though the Duhawks appeared in the Division III regionals and won the American Rivers Conference tournament a season ago, they were no match for the high-powered Hawkeyes, who are favorites to win the Big Ten and return to the postseason for the second straight year.
Here are three takeaways from Iowa’s blowout win:
Cadieux-Lanoue in control
Iowa’s weekend starting pitching rotation is regarded as one of the nation’s best, but midweek games offer plenty of chances for the younger arms on the roster.
Enter first-year Elliot Cadieux-Lanoue.
Hailing from Saint-Pie, Quebec, the southpaw comes to Iowa City after a successful high school career that saw him earn all-conference honors in 2022.
In his first collegiate appearance, Cadieux-Lanoue threw two scoreless innings, allowing only one hit against the seven batters he faced. Though his workload was limited on Tuesday due to the Iowa offense jumping out to a 10-run advantage, Cadieux-Lanoue was efficient with his pitches and proved that he can play a big role as the season continues.
“He’s definitely more mature than his age,” Iowa head coach Rick Heller said of the first-year pitcher.
Bats were hot early and often
Right from the opening pitch, Iowa was determined to get off to a fast start after a tough loss against Lehigh two days ago.
The Hawkeyes did just that.
Fourth-year Raider Tello got the party started with a long two-run homer to left field to put the Hawkeyes up 2-0, and it was a sign of things to come.
Iowa blew the game open with 10 runs in the second inning, aided by four RBI doubles from Michael Seegers, Sam Petersen, Reese Moore, and Ben Wilmes. If that wasn’t enough damage, Davis Cop and Gable Mitchell tacked on additional RBI singles to essentially put the game away.
From there, the Hawkeye offense continued the onslaught with a fourth-inning grand slam from Kyle Huckstorf. Through the season’s first three games, Huckstorf has averaged a measly .182 at the plate.
“I made some adjustments with my swing from Sunday, and it’s been feeling really good,” Huckstorf said.
After Huckstorf’s dinger, the Hawkeyes’ lead ballooned to 14-0, and they were able to put the game on cruise control after that.
“This will definitely help build our confidence into the weekend,” Petersen added.
Following the loss on Sunday, Heller is thrilled with his squad’s firepower from the plate.
“We had great energy, and the guys that you’d hope would get hits got hits. I was really pleased,” Heller said. “They were also super disciplined and weren’t chasing anything out of the strike zone.”
Bullpen holds strong
Despite their lofty 44-16 record a season ago, Iowa’s bullpen seemed to be its downfall. They would often struggle to hold leads, especially in the NCAA Tournament, where blown leads against Indiana State ultimately cost them a regional championship.
It’s still too early to determine how good the bullpen will be this season, but they certainly did their job against Loras. The offense scoring 20 runs helps, but the Hawkeyes allowed only three earned runs, most of which came in the later innings.
Chas Wheatley, Jack Young, and Brant Hogue turned in solid performances on the slab against Loras, each allowing zero runs over an inning of work.
“Our guys approached it the way we would expect them to and go out and play hard,” Heller said.