A theme that has been very common for Iowa Baseball this season continued over the weekend as the Hawkeyes crushed Purdue at Principal Park in Des Moines.
After being swept by Nebraska in the previous series, Iowa needed to gain some momentum before the Big Ten Tournament begins on May 19.
Excluding the first game against Nebraska, the Iowa bats were hot, and they put up 17 runs in two games to close out the series.
The hot bats carried over into a weekend series with the Purdue Boilermakers, and "hot" might be an understatement as the Hawkeyes had a record-setting weekend in Des Moines.
Iowa's massive 52 hits is the most ever under Rick Heller
The Hawkeyes swept the series against the Boilermakers, notching 39 runs in three games, but the amount of hits is what jumped off stat sheet.
The 52 hits in the series against Purdue is the most under Rick Heller.
— Kyle Huesmann (@HuesmannKyle) May 16, 2026
The previous record was 50 hits in a four-game pod series against Maryland/Northwestern in 2021.
Iowa notched a combined 52 hits in the three-game series at Principal Park against Purdue, the most the program has achieved under Rick Heller.
Iowa needs the bats to stay hot with the Big Ten Tournament just a day away, and if they can overcome its pitching woes, they could be a sleeper team.
In Iowa's final regular-season series against Purdue, the Hawkeye offense scored 39 total runs on 52 hits (19 in the finale), and the team had a combined 0.428 batting average.
Now that's how you close out the regular season!
The bats must stay hot to make up for inconsistent pitching
Iowa's pitching struggles have been well-documented this season, starting with the first game of the regular season.
The pitching staff gave up 15 runs to Kansas State, and it hasn't gotten much better throughout the season.
Iowa ranks in the bottom five of the Big Ten Conference in team ERA at 6.18 (No. 13 overall), giving up 309 total earned runs.
Luckily for Heller's club, the defense has been elite, and the bats have carried them, making up for the awful pitching.
The series against Purdue proves how good the bats have been all season, and it isn't a fluke.
Iowa finished the regular season as the best hitting team in the Big Ten with a combined .315 team batting average, second in total hits (573), and third in total runs batted in (390).
Even though Iowa was ultimately swept by Nebraska, it made the Big Ten Tournament, notching its 11th straight appearance.
Iowa faces Illinois in the first round, then a potential rematch with Purdue in the second.
Luckily for the Hawkeyes, the Fighting Illini are near the middle of the conference in pitching and near the bottom of the conference in slugging, so they simply need the bats to keep doing what they have been doing to advance.
There is no doubt the pitching will be a concern throughout the tournament, and the bats can't afford to go cold this late in the season.
If Iowa wins its first two games of the tournament, USC is looming, but to get there, the bats must carry them.
Add us as a preferred source on Google