The Iowa and U-N-I baseball teams matchup Wednesday night in a game that has become an event. Veterans Stadium in Cedar Rapids will host the third annual Corridor Classic which matches the state’s two division one baseball programs.

Iowa coach Jack Dahm who says it is a great way to promote college baseball. Dahm says it’s still a game on the diamond, but there’s a lot of distractions. He says they’ll try to keep the team focused.

The Hawkeyes are coming off a Big Ten series at Illinois in which they dropped three of four games and Dahm says they would like to get some momentum. He says the midweek games are important for that momentum. Dahm says they haven’t been able to string together some good games, but he says getting things going would be a big boost for the weekend conference games.

Dahm says the Hawks need to pitch better. He plants to start Justin Toole, a freshman from Council Bluffs. He says hopefully Toole can settle in and throw strikes.

The Panthers dropped two of three games of a Missouri Valley Conference series at Indiana State. U-N-I coach Rick Heller says this series exposes college baseball to new fans. He says it may be the only college baseball game some people see all year. Heller says if they get good weather, they may have a good crowd.

Heller feels this series will become bigger each year. He says they hoped all along to sell the game out, and he says each year more and more people find out about it.
Heller says tonight’s matchup will have a big game atmosphere. He says it puts his team in a situation that’s similar to a big game they’ll face down the road.

Heller says the players enjoy the large crowds this game draws. He says it puts more pressure on them as they play in front of a lot of people. Heller says they always get fired up for Iowa, but this just adds to it. The Panthers have won the last two games in the series and stand 19-21 overall. Iowa is 17-21 on the season.