Hawkeyes fall to UCLA in the Big Ten Tournament Semifinals

For much of the season, the Iowa Baseball team played as well as they could have, leading the Big Ten in hitting and pitching for the majority of conference play. Unfortunately for Rick Heller and Co, their hot stretch of play turned into a cold stretch at the wrong time.

They were unable to snap out of the untimely lull, falling to UCLA 9-3 in the Big Ten Tournament semifinals on Saturday afternoon at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha. A five-run inning from the Bruins in the fourth inning broke the game open, giving them a 7-0 cushion to work with.

“The game just didn’t go how we wanted it to,” said head coach Rick Heller. “Needed a quality start from Savary and getting us through the sixth inning was the hope and with the way Aaron’s pitched this season, we felt that was very doable….UCLA is a very good team and had a great day today offensively.”

With the loss, the Hawkeyes close the season with a 33-22-1 record. After going 28-6 through the middle part of the season and speeding out to a 20-4 record in Big Ten play, Iowa went just 2-10-1 in their final 13 games of the season.

Players of the Game

• OF Andy Nelson: Nelson, in his final game as a Hawkeye, finished with two hits, including a two-run home run in the fifth inning.

Bruins execute at a high-level against Aaron Savary, Cholowsky breaks things open in the fourth inning

The blueprint to a victory for the Hawkeyes included a lengthy and effective start from Aaron Savary. It didn’t seem unreasonable considering the fact that Savary was recently named a First Team All-Big Ten selection.

He worked around a two out single in the first inning and then escaped trouble in the second inning. The Bruins started the second with consecutive singles, but Aaron battled back, getting a strikeout and a groundout to end the inning after a sac bunt.

UCLA got on the board in the third inning. Dean West led off with a single that Caleb Wulf nearly made a leaping grab on, while Roch Cholowsky followed with a bunt double that beat the Hawkeye shift. Savary retired three straight to end the inning, but an RBI groundout from Mulivai Levu and a sac fly from Roman Martin put UCLA in front 2-0.

“Started with a single and then a Cholowsky push bunt double. Bunts when we have the shift on and nobody was over there. Executed it perfectly and bunted it hard enough to get it to the outfield,” said Heller. “Savary handled it pretty well.”

The third inning is where they game came unraveled, and the Hawkeyes found themselves with a steep hill to climb. A leadoff walk, followed by a double from Blake Balsz put the Bruins in the same spot they were in the inning prior. This time, the damage was greater.

Cashel Dugger slashed an RBI single through the left side, which was followed by a sac fly from Phoenix Call to make it 4-0 UCLA. After an infield single, the devastating blow came from the Golden Spikes Semifinalist. Roch Cholowsky hit his third home run of the week, a three-run shot to make it 7-0 Bruins.

“We just couldn’t hold them down and there were a lot of groundballs that found holes and I think Aaron may have gotten frustrated a little bit with that,” said Heller. “Aaron told me that he was hitting spots most of the time when they were getting hits and he didn’t feel like he was off by much.”

“He looked like himself and I thought his demeanor was good. Just got beat today.”

Savary allowed seven runs on nine hits over 3.1 innings, including one strikeout to one walk. He threw 39 of his 59 (66.1%) pitches for strikes.

Andy Nelson puts Iowa on the board with a fifth inning home run

Trailing 7-0 in the top of the fifth, the Hawkeyes needed an answer to try to restore some confidence in the dugout. Just six batters came to the plate in the inning, but UCLA starter Michael Barnett was forced to throw over 40 pitches and gave up a couple of runs.

Blake Guerin grinded out a one out, eight-pitch walked, which was followed by a two-run home run from Andy Nelson on the sixth pitch of his at-bat. Barnett retired two of the final three he faced in the inning, but Hawkeye hitters were able to drive up his pitch count and run him out of the game after five innings. It gave the players, and the coaches hope that maybe they could find some more success against the Bruins bullpen.

“Blake’s at-bat before me was the big one,” said Andy Nelson. “Tried to tell guys all day just to find a way to get on base and then on my end, I was lucky enough to get the pitch I was looking for and hit it out.”

“They had the five-run inning, and we come back out in the top half of the next inning (and score),” said Heller. “I thought that was an awesome sign, but then they just shut us down after that.”

Michael Barnett allowed two runs on four hits over 5.0 innings, including four strikeouts to three free bases given up. He threw 56 of his 100 (56.0%) pitches for strikes.

Andy sends one out 🚀@Andyynelsonnn x #Hawkeyes pic.twitter.com/QdvOrmF4fF

— Iowa Baseball (@UIBaseball) May 24, 2025

UCLA bullpen shuts down the Hawkeyes, tossing three straight 1-2-3 innings

With the Iowa dugout feeling like a rally and comeback was still possible after a scoreless inning from Brant Hogue in the fifth inning, the UCLA bullpen did exactly what they were asked to do.

In the sixth, Cal Randall retired the Hawkeyes three up, three down. In the seventh, Jack O’Connor did the same and then in the eighth, August Souza did it one more time. The Bruins bullpen arms attacked Iowa hitters, threw strikes and shut down any hope of a comeback. Those three combined to throw 26 of their 39 (66.7%) pitches for strikes.

“They aren’t just another guy, they’re legit guys and it was a good play with Barnett not being a hard thrower to then come in with the hard throwers and that change alone is tough when we’d seen (Barnett) for 100 pitches,” said Heller. “We were, at times, taking a strike trying to get something going, trying to get somebody on base and they didn’t fall into that trap.”

“If we were going to come back, we’ll take what they give us, but we were going to have to hit, and we just didn’t hit. That was the disappointing thing for me. We went sixth, seventh, eighth, 1-2-3 and don’t even get a guy on base.”

Meanwhile, UCLA tacked on a pair of runs to extend their lead. An RBI double from Roch Cholowsky in the sixth and an RBI double from Mulivai Levu in the eighth made it 9-2 going into the top of the ninth inning.

Iowa Baseball closes the 2025 season with a 33-22-1 record

It was an interesting 2025 campaign for the Hawkeyes. After a 3-6 start to the season, they caught fire, winning 28 of their next 34 games, including a 20-4 start in Big Ten play that had them in first place. However, down the stretch, Iowa won just two of their final 13 games. Rick Heller said that most times when things go off track, there are signs, but he never felt that with this team.

“I don’t know where things went off track because usually when things go off the track, you can feel it in your training, you can feel it in the clubhouse and that never happened. That was the odd thing.”

Picked 9th in the D1Baseball preseason Big Ten poll, Iowa far exceeded the expectations of basically everybody. The fact that the Hawkeyes found themselves in a position to possibly win their first regular season title since 1990 was admirable, but it won’t mask what happened late in the year.

“We were leading the league in hitting, leading the league in pitching. Guys playing together, playing hard, finding ways to get it done,” said Heller. “The run we made in the conference up until the last two weeks of league play was phenomenal and I couldn’t be prouder of those guys for putting us in that spot. On the other hand, what happened the last four weeks is unacceptable. To put yourself in that position, regardless of the expectations, we’re better than that.”