The Iowa baseball team is set top open the Big Ten race on Friday with the first of a three game set against Michigan. This time of year the weather can always be a factor and there is the possibility of some snow over the weekend.
Iowa coach Jack Dahm says his first conference weekend was Michigan State and it was nice when they started the game and snowing by the time it ended. Dahm says you don’t realize how far north the Big Ten schools are, but he says every team plays in the same weather and you have to be “tough between the ears.”
He says the World Series is often played in cold weather late in the season, so it’s not something unique to baseball. Dahm says they have moved up the start time of the series opener to 4 p.m., and that is the earliest they can start as the players have classes.
New this year for the Big Ten is the weekend series’ will be three games instead of four. He says the coaches have been pushing for this as he says they felt they needed to do some things to improve the competitiveness in the conference.
Dahm says they could still have doubleheaders with rain outs or weather, but hopefully they will only have to play one game each day. After opening the season 2-8 the Hawkeyes have now won six of their last eight heading into the start of league play.
Dahm says it seems like they were pressing and more concerned with the results instead of how they are playing. Dahm says they seem to be playing better after getting out more and believes they will continue to improve.