Iowa Baseball: Hawkeyes Go From Fifth Seed To Big Ten Tournament Champs

On Sunday, the Iowa Hawkeyes captured their first Big Ten Tournament title in baseball. This coming a year after losing in the title game to Ohio State. The 13-4 victory over the Northwestern Wildcats was a sound and dominant defeat to capture the crown.

The most valuable player award went to redshirt sophomore Chris Whelan. Whelan who went from a redshirt at Bradley to a year at Parkland College in Champaign, Illinois, became apart of Hawkeye lore with his legendary performance over the weekend. The road to the title for Rick Heller’s club included wins against Maryland, Nebraska, Minnesota (also lost one of the games to the Gophers) and finally the Wildcats in the championship.

Also earning all-tournament distinctions were pitcher Ryan Erickson, pitcher Josh Martsching, catcher Tyler Cropley and of course the aforementioned Whelan. Big Ten regular season player of the year Jake Adams struggled early in the tournament, but finished the tournament strong.

A proud coach Rick Heller explained his feelings on the victory for his team to the Des Moines Register:

“It’s just a fun group to be with,” Heller said, “They jelled, they clicked. No one really gave us a shot, but we found a way to get it done.”

Iowa will learn today where they go next as they receive an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament with the conference tournament title in-hand.

The last time the Hawkeyes made it to the College World Series was the run in 1972. The Big Ten also hasn’t had the National Champion come out of the conference since 1966. But, it will be fun to continue to be able to watch this Hawkeye team, as they are playing their best baseball, at the best possible time.