Iowa baseball (22-10, 13-3 Big Ten) opened their three-game conference series vs. Nebraska (15-19, 5-9) from Duane Banks Field with a gritty 1-0 shutout win over the Cornhuskers on Friday night.
Junior left-hander Cade Obermueller (4-2, 2.18 ERA) started on the mound for the Hawkeyes, where he struck out 11 batters and surrendered two hits and two walks over seven innings of work to earn his fourth win of the season. Junior right-hander Anthony Watts (2-2, 4.26 ERA) came in relief of Obermueller in the eighth inning, giving up one hit and striking out three in two innings of work to earn his second save of the campaign.
“It was definitely an old-school pitchers dual,” said head coach Rick Heller. “Obe was really good again tonight. Didn’t quite have the command he has had his last couple outings, but when he got some traffic he buckled down and made pitches when he had to.”
On offense, the lone run came in the second inning when Kooper Schulte launched a 424-foot home run beyond the left-field scoreboard with two outs. Iowa recorded two other hits on the night, including singles by Gable Mitchell and Ben Swails.
“I am really happy with how we handled it,” said Heller. “The offense has been going so well, sometimes when you have a game like that the frustration really sets in because you start assuming you are going to score 10 runs and that’s not the way it is on a traditional Friday night. The thing I am thinking about the most I have been hoping we would get a win like that, we just hadn’t had that yet.”
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The Hawkeyes held the Cornhuskers to a .097 batting average (3-for-31) and recorded its seventh shutout of the season, good for second most in the NCAA.
Both teams will meet again today from Duane Banks Field for Game 2 of the three-game series, with the first pitch scheduled for 2:02 p.m. CT. The game will again be broadcast on Big Ten Plus (subscription required) and can be heard through the Hawkeyes Radio Network alongside play-by-play voice John Leo and color analyst John Evans.
Junior right-hander Aaron Savary (5-0, 3.43 ERA) is scheduled to get the start for Iowa in Game 2 as the Hawkeyes look to secure their sixth conference series victory and keep pace with UCLA atop the Big Ten standings.
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This article originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire: Iowa baseball pitching shines in shutout win vs Nebraska