Jake Adams

Iowa junior Jake Adams is the unanimous Big Ten Player of the Year. Adams is a rare combination of average and power. He finished fourth in the conference with a .344 average and led the Big Ten in home runs and RBI. His 24 homers broke Iowa’s single season record.

“I knew I had the power but at this level I knew it was going to take a lot of good swings and I adjusted pretty well to the pitching”, said Adams. “I got fortunate enough to get 24 and it has been a great experience.”

His numbers also show how far the Iowa program has progressed. Four years ago the Hawkeyes, as a team, hit two home runs. Iowa coach Rick Heller says Adams is a professional level hitter already.

“I have seen him grow from a guy that was more of a dead pull guy coming in to a guy that now hits home runs to right field and center field”, said Heller. “He adjusts with two strikes, is selective at the plate and does all the things a great hitter does.”

The Hawkeyes are 34-19 and open the Big Ten Tournament Wednesday night in Bloomington, Indiana against fourth seeded Maryland.

Justin Meyer

The Iowa Central baseball team is two victories away from a trip to the Division II Junior College World Series. The Tritons take a 36-16 record to Southeast Community College of Nebraska this weekend for the best-of-three North Plains District Tournament.

Iowa Central has won 10 straight games, including three straight to win the Region 11 Tournament in Waterloo this past weekend.

“We got off to a slow start but we talked all along about peaking at the end and playing our best baseball at the end”, said Iowa Central coach Justin Meyer. “That has been achieved.”

Sophomore Anderson DeLeon and freshman Max Steffens anchor a pitching staff that is limiting opponents to a .259 average. The duo combined for a 12-0 record in conference play.

Meyer says the Triton’s biggest advantage may be the schedule they play in the Iowa Community College Athletic Conference.

“Week in and week out it is the same intensity for us”, added Meyer. “This is just another weekend trip for us and hopefully that is an advantage.”

Iowa Central and Southeast met five times during the regular season. The Tritons won three.

The teams will play a doubleheader Saturday in Beatrice, Nebraska. A third and deciding game, if needed, will be Sunday.

Hans Brase

The Iowa State basketball team has landed Princeton graduate transfer Hans Brase and he will be immediately eligible upon earning his degree from Princeton.

“I am really excited to add Hans to our program and to the Cyclone family,” said Iowa State coach Steve Prohm. “He comes from a program I have great respect for and he’ll add experience, maturity and high skill level to our team. His ability to think the game, to play the way we want to play and to space the floor will make him a valuable addition.”

Brase, a 6-9 forward from Clover, South Carolina, has played just five games since the end of the 2014-15 season after suffering a pair of knee injuries. Prior to suffering the injury last season, Brase averaged 6.4 points and shot 50 percent from both the field and behind the arc.

The 2014-15 season was his most productive for the Tigers, averaging 11.5 points and 7.5 rebounds.

In his career, Brase has averaged 9.3 points and 5.7 rebounds. He’s connected on 100 three-pointers at a 35 percent clip, while shooting 74.1 percent from the free-throw line. Brase has scored in double figures in 46 career games, including a career-high 23 points against Columbia in 2015. He has started 82 of 93 games for the Tigers.

The 11th-seeded University of Iowa softball team fell, 3-0, to No. 6 Wisconsin on Thursday night in round one of the 2017 Big Ten Conference Tournament at the Wilpon Complex.

“It came down to the little things,” said UI head coach Marla Looper. “It wasn’t a massive hit fest tonight, it was little hits and balls that went through the gaps. That was the difference. We didn’t adjust soon enough offensively to give ourselves a chance. We had runners on base early but didn’t produce any runs. Ultimately, I’m proud of this group of young ladies and what they have done all year.

“The team has talked about having courage and passion and being genuine, and that’s exactly what they did this season. I’m so proud of these young ladies who showed grit when people counted them out. It doesn’t matter what the outside world says, it matters what we do, and how we control our attitude and effort. They brought their best every day, and that’s why we made it to the tournament.”

Cheyenne Pratt went 2-for-3, while Claire Fritsch was 1-for-3. Shayla Starkenburg suffered the loss, throwing four strikeouts in 6.0 innings of play. [Read more…]

Rich Calvert

The Drake softball team is playing its best at the right time as the Bulldogs get set to travel to Normal, Illinois for the Missouri Valley Tournament. The Bulldogs struggled following a season ending elbow injury to Valley pitcher of the year Nicole Newman in February and opened conference play 3-14.

A three game sweep at Bradley triggered a turnaround as the Bulldogs won eight of their last nine games.

“Right when we got to Bradley we sat down in a hotel and said ‘Hey, our backs are against the wall and this is what we need to do to get where we want to get to at the end of the season'”, said Drake coach Rich Calvert. “We have turned it around.”

The Bulldogs are 28-26 overall and the sixth seed in the Valley Tournament. They open Thursday against seventh seeded Missouri State.

“We are playing with a lot of good confidence right now”, added Calvert. “We are playing good defense, getting some timely hitting and some really good pitching from Kailee Smith.”

Smith tossed a perfect game in Drake’s 8-0 win over Loyola to close the regular season.

Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., edged Jamie McMurray to win NASCAR’s spring race at Talladega, his first victory in 158 starts in the sport’s top series.  McMurray was seeking his first win since he took the October race at Talladega in 2013.

McMurray started the overtime laps running fifth but made a bold move on the backstretch on the last lap, splitting Jimmie Johnson and Kyle Busch to move into second. Stenhouse did not give him or Busch enough room for a finish-line pass.   McMurray finished inches ahead of Busch, his best finish of the year.

McMurray (who is following Dale Earnhardt Jr., as the big  crash develops behind them) and the other contenders at the finish avoided the only major crash of the day, on the 169^th lap that damaged or eliminated eighteen cars and caused the race to be red-flagged for almost half an hour.

Stenhouse started the race from the pole with a qualifying lap at 191.547 mph.  McMurray started 23^rd in the 40-car field but was running in the top ten before the race was one-third finished.

The race was extended by three laps beyond the 188 laps scheduled on the 2.66-mile speedway, NASCAR’s longest and fastest oval where McMurray has won twice. He also won the fall race in 2009.

Stenhouse’ victory ends a 101-race drought for car owner Jack Roush.  The last victory for Roush Fenway Racing was provided by Columbia’s Carl Edwards on the road course at Sonoma in June, 2014.

NASCAR will race at the Kansas Speedway next Saturday night.

story by Bob Priddy

Joel Holst Photo By Elwin Huffman, KOEL-Oelwein

The Iowa Conference baseball race has come down to the final weekend of the regular season. League-leading Wartburg hosts second-place Dubuque in a three-game series that will determine the title and the top-seed in next week’s conference tournament in Cedar Rapids.

Wartburg is seeking its 22nd Iowa Conference championship in program history and 16th under coach Joel Holst. The Knights are 17-4 in league play and currently have a one-game lead over the 16-5 Spartans.

“We have won a lot of championships in our baseball program but it is never easy and it seems like it’s just a grind”, said Holst. “I am sure that is what the series is going to be like this weekend.”

Wartburg has won the regular-season crown three of the last four years. The Knights are 26-11 overall. Dubuque is 22-13 and has equaled the school record for wins. The Spartans will be in search of their first Iowa Conference championship.

story by Elwin Huffman

Photo courtesy/luther.edu

Luther softball coach Renae Hartl says depth is the biggest strength of this year’s team. The Norse are 37-3 overall and won a third straight Iowa Conference regular season title by posting a league mark of 15-1. It is Luther’s fifth title in seven years.

“This team never relies on one person to get it done”, said Hartl. “We just this week had our third pitcher recognized as Iowa Conference Pitcher of the Week. To have three quality pitchers going into the post season and to have so many offensive weapons one through nine has really been the difference with this team.”

Eight players are batting better than .300 for a team that is averaging more than seven and a half runs per game.

“It seems like we are able to turn our lineup over quite a bit during a game.”

Luther is the top seed and will host the Iowa Conference tournament beginning Friday.