Iowa hosting NCAA Baseball Regional would be HUGE

[OnceAhawk]

First, Iowa has not made the NCAA tourney in baseball in 25 years.

2nd, Iowa has never hosted a baseball NCAA regional.

I am hoping for a top 2 finish in the Big 10 Tourney (the ILLINI are ranked #3 in the nation), which would hopefully allow Iowa to host a 4 team regional (there are 16 host sites, each with 4 teams) Win that, they are one of 16 teams left; they then would play a team best 2 of 3 with the winner being one of the 8 teams to advance to the College World Series in Omaha.

Think big; anything could happen! A berth in the college World Series just might give Heller the National Coach of the Year honor (I think he has the B1G COY wrapped up). What a great 2 years (so far) it has been under Coach Heller

 

[2bagger22]

Any other year Heller is COY but Illinois' run gives Hartlieb the nod. Hope I'm wrong.

 

[OnceAhawk]

Any other year Heller is COY but Illinois' run gives Hartlieb the nod. Hope I'm wrong.

hope you are wrong too; i wonder if the voting happens after the BTT? its too bad IA/IL did not play in the reg season

 

[IowaHawkeyeFBnBB4Life]

Heller has a legitimate shot at it if you look at preseason predictions and such. People knew Illinois would be solid, I think Iowa was predicted 9th in the conference. However, I don't think people expected Illinois to be THIS good, so that is why Hartleb will get the nod.

 

[PHXIowaClub]

Dropping 2 of 3 at Rutgers didn't help their cause. I think Iowa will need to win the B1G tournament in order to host a regional.

 

[EvilMonkeyInTheCloset]

Bau........right?

 

[CoachoftheFuture1]

BTW, many may not know that IOWA has played in the College World Series--once. Iowa won the Big Ten title outright in 1972 with a 13-3 record that included a still school record 11 straight Big Ten wins. The Hawkeyes were rumored to be in line to host the regional (in those days you had to win your league to play in the regional, and there was no Big Ten tournament.) But, alas, for reasons still unclear, Bowling Green (Ohio) was the host site for one of the 8 four-team regionals. The winner of each regional advanced to the College World Series in Omaha.

Iowa lost its first game in the regional, so in the double-elimination format, the Hawkeyes had to win 2 games on Saturday and 2 more on Sunday to make the CWS. And, of course, that's exactly what they did, beating host Bowling Green twice on their home field on Sunday.

Iowa then was matched up with #1 Arizona State in Omaha. ASU had a roster full of all-Americans and future major leaguers, while Iowa's catcher, Jim Sundberg, was destined to go on to a long MLB career. Arizona State brought a 60 and 4 record into that match-up with Iowa, so if you're amazed by lllinois this year, ponder that a moment: SIXTY wins and FOUR losses. Naturally, Iowa was a huge underdog, but a then sellout crowd of about 14,000 watched Iowa outhit ASU 8-3, only to lose in typically heartbreaking Hawkeye style, 2-1, with the tying run thrown out at the plate by inches in the 9th and another potential tying run left on third as the game ended.

So yes, this year's Iowa team would seem to have a great shot at adding to their success. It has happened before at Iowa, but only once, and that was 43 years ago....