Rick Heller
The 13th ranked Iowa baseball team opens the final week of the regular season with the first of a three game series at Rutgers on Thursday. The Hawkeyes will need help if they hope to chase down Big Ten leader Illinois as they take on a Rutgers squad that has no chance of playing in the league tournament.
“It’s one of those teams that’s very dangerous, they’re at home, there’s no pressure…play free and easy,”Iowa coach Rick Heller says. Heller says he’s been in games like this before where the team that wasn’t expected to win ended up on top.
The Hawkeyes have won the first game of all but one of the Big Ten series this season. “It sure is big, and it’s something that we’ve done a really good job of this year, for the most part,” Heller says. “It definitely eases the pressure right away to get the first one under your belt, a big sigh of relief and then go out and play the rest of the series.”
Iowa is 18-3 and can finish no worse than second in the league race.