Iowa baseball head coach Rick Heller will be the first to admit that the 2024 season was a disappointing one for his ball club.
The Hawkeyes entered the year with some of the highest preseason expectations in recent history. Many college baseball outlets had Iowa not only winning the Big Ten, but competing heavily in postseason play.
While Iowa did not eclipse this forecast, it was still a somewhat solid season overall. Heller and company crossed the 30-win mark for the third consecutive year while finishing fourth in one of the more competitive Big Ten seasons in recent memory.
This year, preseason projections have the Hawkeye’s sitting in the bottom half of the conference, with D1 Baseball having Iowa finish ninth in the expanded 18-team Big Ten. Much of these underwhelming predictions are due to the vast exodus of talent that departed from Iowa this past summer due to graduation and the MLB Draft.
Highlighting these departures is right-handed pitcher Brody Brecht. During two seasons in the starting rotation, Brecht posted a 3.53 earned run average while tallying 237 strikeouts in 155 innings of work. This resume was good enough to get selected 38th overall by the Colorado Rockies and earn a $2 million contract.
Offensively, the Hawkeyes are moving forward from a handful of players who have been in the starting lineup consistently the past two or three seasons.
Third basemen Raider Tello, shortstop Michael Seegers, and outfielders Kyle Huckstorf and Sam Petersen are all notable departures that have produced immensely for Iowa on both sides of the ball during their careers. Last season, the four combined for 176 runs batted in, 352 total bases, and hit .321 as a unit.
With those players gone, fans can expect to see a few new names in the lineup to begin the 2025 season.
Key returners
In their first seasons in the starting lineup, second basemen Gabel Mitchell and catcher Reese Moore established themselves as some of the Big Ten’s most-talented underclassmen.
After seeing limited action in 2023, Mitchell was brought to the spotlight in 2024 and made the most of his new opportunity. Mitchell slashed for an impressive .293 batting average while notching 43 RBIs. With the graduation of Seegers, Mitchell will be asked to take a bigger role that goes beyond the field.
“Become more of a leader on this team and be more vocal with guys,” Mitchell said when asked about what he’s worked on this offseason. “Trying to get everyone else to be ready.”
Unlike Mitchell, Moore didn’t have any game reps under his belt going into last season, making his 2024 debut even more impressive. Rotating between catcher and designated hitter, Moore earned Big Ten All-Freshman honors after recording a .287 batting average and nearly a .900 on-base plus slugging percentage.
The most crucial returner for Iowa might be fifth-year outfielder Any Nelson. Similar to Moore, Nelson wasn’t a highly-known talent before the 2024 campaign. He combined for 66 at-bats in 2021 and 2022 before missing the entire 2023 season due to Tommy John surgery.
While there were certainly flashes in his short span of game repetition, many fans didn’t know what to expect moving forward. But he became one of the Hawkeyes’ most impactful bats in 2024, recording the fourth-best batting average on the squad at .325. Nelson also led the Hawkeyes with nine home runs.
Even with the departures, Heller and his coaching staff are still confident in this team’s abilities, not regarding any of the preseason projections and going out and doing what they know best – playing Iowa baseball.
“Anytime you get embarrassed a little bit, if you have this, you are going to go out and try and prove that it was just a blip on the radar,” Heller said while pointing to his heart. “These guys, from the first time we met in August, have been really dialed in on that.”
Up Next
The Hawkeyes continue their non-conference slate, traveling to DeLand, Florida to compete in the Stetson Tournament. The event will begin on Feb. 21 against Notre Dame, followed by games against Stetson and Maryland, Baltimore County over the next two days, respectively.