From Rick:
Hi Everyone!
It’s a blizzard outside here in Iowa City as I write this. It must be college baseball season! Hopefully, our flight can get out of Cedar Rapids in the morning, and we open the 2025 season in Tampa, Florida with a three-game series at The University of South Florida. Here is a pre-season update. Practices and training have gone well, and I believe we are ready to go. You reach a point as a player where you need to compete against someone with a different name on their jersey, and we are to that point. With a great deal of inexperience on this year’s team, this “old coach” wouldn’t mind another week or two to keep preparing!
We were able to get outside for a full week, two weeks ago. All the pitchers threw to live hitters that weekend outside. We’ve been inside since then but even having a few days outside this time of year is a bonus. The team is in good shape health wise with only a few minor injuries.
I always wish we had a spring training type weekend or two with real games to experiment with line ups and pitching roles before we do it for real. Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury in college baseball. All the games count. This team will have plenty of new faces in the lineup this weekend. Over the next three weeks we will be doing our best to put the right pieces together. The “new “Big Ten schedule starts league play week four this year. In the past, league play began week six. This year is the start of a 10 week Big Ten schedule (vs. eight in the past), You play three non-conference weekends before starting Big Ten play and will have a bye sometime during the season. There is an odd number of teams in the baseball league, 17 teams, with Wisconsin not playing baseball.
The captains and returning players have done a fantastic job with helping bring everyone together. Not an easy task with 22 new players. This year’s captains are Gable Mitchell (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa), Andy Nelson (Sr., Winfield, Illinois), Brant Hogue (R-Sr., Sioux City, Iowa) and Jack Whitlock (R-Sr., Cumming, Georgia). When we play Friday night, Mitchell, Nelson, Ben Wilmes (Sr., Johnston, Iowa) and Reese Moore (R-So., Van Meter, Iowa) will be the returners likely in the starting lineup. On the mound Cade Obermueller (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa) will take the ball in game one, with Aaron Savary (Jr., Dubuque, Iowa) and Reece Beuter (R-Sr., Cedar Falls, Iowa) starting on Saturday and Sunday. Anthony Watts (Jr., Clive, Iowa) has pitched great, and we will use him in a “long close” situation, hopefully in game one. At the back end of the game, you will likely see Ben DeTaeye (R-Sr., Clive, Iowa) who has pitched fantastic.
South Florida will have a new Head Coach this season. Mitch Hannahs was hired over the summer. Mitch took over for me in 2014 at Indiana State when I came to Iowa. He did a fantastic job at ISU. His son Derick played for us when I was at ISU. Mitch is a great guy and coach. It’s a bit ironic we will face each other in his opener at USF.
The Bulls traditionally have a good program, and we last played them in 2017. We will see some good arms this weekend. LHP Corey Braun is a transfer from Ole Miss (90-93 w/ crossfire action) and will go on Friday. RHP James Hill is a JC transfer who is coming off Tommy John surgery in 2023 but pitched some toward the end of last year. He will go on Saturday, and we don’t know a lot about him. They are TBA on Sunday. Offensively, they will have some experienced hitters back led by Marcus Brodil (.319, 8-2B, 3-HR, .500-OBP), Jackson Mayo (.262, 15-2B, 8-HR, 36-RBI’s) Rafael Betancourt (.302, 10-2B, 20-RBI’s).
This weekend’s games will be streamed on ESPN+ and we have John Leo and John Evans on the radio again this season, they can be heard here.
I know we will have a lot of Hawk Fans out to see us the next few weekends on the road. We are looking forward to seeing everyone!! Week two we will be in Deland, Florida playing in the Stetson Tournament (Notre Dame, Stetson, UMBC). Week three, we play at a neutral site in Cleburne, TX. It will be a Thursday-Sunday, four game series vs. Washington State. Week four we are on the road to open Big Ten play at Rutgers. It will be great to see some of our east coast fans and alums that weekend!
Our annual Iowa Baseball Golf Outing will be held Friday, April 25. The opponent that weekend will be Indiana. It will run in coordination with our annual Alumni Weekend. Iowa’s graduation is the same as our final home series vs. Oregon. With hotel availability and expensive rooms that weekend we decided to move it up.
The Iowa Baseball Golf Outing/Alumni Weekend sign up link is below:
https://birdease.com/Iowabaseballgolfouting
It’s exciting to get the season rolling!! We look forward to seeing a lot of you in the next few weeks!
Thanks for everyone’s support and please let me know if you have anyone to add to the e-mail list.
GO HAWKS!
Hi Everyone!
It’s a blizzard outside here in Iowa City as I write this. It must be college baseball season! Hopefully, our flight can get out of Cedar Rapids in the morning, and we open the 2025 season in Tampa, Florida with a three-game series at The University of South Florida. Here is a pre-season update. Practices and training have gone well, and I believe we are ready to go. You reach a point as a player where you need to compete against someone with a different name on their jersey, and we are to that point. With a great deal of inexperience on this year’s team, this “old coach” wouldn’t mind another week or two to keep preparing!
We were able to get outside for a full week, two weeks ago. All the pitchers threw to live hitters that weekend outside. We’ve been inside since then but even having a few days outside this time of year is a bonus. The team is in good shape health wise with only a few minor injuries.
I always wish we had a spring training type weekend or two with real games to experiment with line ups and pitching roles before we do it for real. Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury in college baseball. All the games count. This team will have plenty of new faces in the lineup this weekend. Over the next three weeks we will be doing our best to put the right pieces together. The “new “Big Ten schedule starts league play week four this year. In the past, league play began week six. This year is the start of a 10 week Big Ten schedule (vs. eight in the past), You play three non-conference weekends before starting Big Ten play and will have a bye sometime during the season. There is an odd number of teams in the baseball league, 17 teams, with Wisconsin not playing baseball.
The captains and returning players have done a fantastic job with helping bring everyone together. Not an easy task with 22 new players. This year’s captains are Gable Mitchell (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa), Andy Nelson (Sr., Winfield, Illinois), Brant Hogue (R-Sr., Sioux City, Iowa) and Jack Whitlock (R-Sr., Cumming, Georgia). When we play Friday night, Mitchell, Nelson, Ben Wilmes (Sr., Johnston, Iowa) and Reese Moore (R-So., Van Meter, Iowa) will be the returners likely in the starting lineup. On the mound Cade Obermueller (Jr., Iowa City, Iowa) will take the ball in game one, with Aaron Savary (Jr., Dubuque, Iowa) and Reece Beuter (R-Sr., Cedar Falls, Iowa) starting on Saturday and Sunday. Anthony Watts (Jr., Clive, Iowa) has pitched great, and we will use him in a “long close” situation, hopefully in game one. At the back end of the game, you will likely see Ben DeTaeye (R-Sr., Clive, Iowa) who has pitched fantastic.
South Florida will have a new Head Coach this season. Mitch Hannahs was hired over the summer. Mitch took over for me in 2014 at Indiana State when I came to Iowa. He did a fantastic job at ISU. His son Derick played for us when I was at ISU. Mitch is a great guy and coach. It’s a bit ironic we will face each other in his opener at USF.
The Bulls traditionally have a good program, and we last played them in 2017. We will see some good arms this weekend. LHP Corey Braun is a transfer from Ole Miss (90-93 w/ crossfire action) and will go on Friday. RHP James Hill is a JC transfer who is coming off Tommy John surgery in 2023 but pitched some toward the end of last year. He will go on Saturday, and we don’t know a lot about him. They are TBA on Sunday. Offensively, they will have some experienced hitters back led by Marcus Brodil (.319, 8-2B, 3-HR, .500-OBP), Jackson Mayo (.262, 15-2B, 8-HR, 36-RBI’s) Rafael Betancourt (.302, 10-2B, 20-RBI’s).
This weekend’s games will be streamed on ESPN+ and we have John Leo and John Evans on the radio again this season, they can be heard here.
I know we will have a lot of Hawk Fans out to see us the next few weekends on the road. We are looking forward to seeing everyone!! Week two we will be in Deland, Florida playing in the Stetson Tournament (Notre Dame, Stetson, UMBC). Week three, we play at a neutral site in Cleburne, TX. It will be a Thursday-Sunday, four game series vs. Washington State. Week four we are on the road to open Big Ten play at Rutgers. It will be great to see some of our east coast fans and alums that weekend!
Our annual Iowa Baseball Golf Outing will be held Friday, April 25. The opponent that weekend will be Indiana. It will run in coordination with our annual Alumni Weekend. Iowa’s graduation is the same as our final home series vs. Oregon. With hotel availability and expensive rooms that weekend we decided to move it up.
The Iowa Baseball Golf Outing/Alumni Weekend sign up link is below:
https://birdease.com/Iowabaseballgolfouting
It’s exciting to get the season rolling!! We look forward to seeing a lot of you in the next few weeks!
Thanks for everyone’s support and please let me know if you have anyone to add to the e-mail list.
GO HAWKS!
