Ty Langenberg silences Michigan bats, Hawkeyes advance to the Big Ten Championship
The Iowa Baseball team entered Saturyday’s Big Ten Tournament semifinal with a game up on Michigan. If needed, the Hawkeyes would have two chances to defeat the Wolverines and advance to Sunday’s championship. Ty Langenberg and the rest of the team were set on getting it done in the game one. Michgan didn’t go down without a fight, but it was three runs scored off of their ace that did them in late in the game.
Brennen Dorighi was apart of a pair of Wofford squads that missed out on the NCAA Tournament due to losing back-to-back games late in the SoCon Tournament. He said that this year’s Iowa team was different from the those Terrier teams.
“It’s natural to look ahead a little bit with everything else that’s been going on,” said Dorighi. “I think this year, the most of any team I’ve been on, we’ve been able to just kind of compartmentalize and stay where our feet are. I think that was huge today, just showing up and every single person just focused on this Michigan game.”
The win was the 42nd of the season and now the Hawkeyes will have a shot at grabbing the Big Ten automatic NCAA Tournament bid tomorrow. The 5-0 victory marked the sixth shutout of the season for the Hawkeyes.
“We’ve found ways to do it every way imaginable this year and that’s a tribute to the balance that we have with this team, with our pitching and our hitting,” said head coach Rick Heller. “It felt like a day that you’re going to have to manufacture runs and you’re going to have to scratch and battle for every run.”
The search for a game MVP started and ended with Ty Langenberg. He set the tone with a pair of strikeouts and a zero in the first inning, but that was just the beginning. Langenberg shut down a Michigan offense that racked up 13 runs and 18 hits against Indiana in an elimination game on Friday.
“He did just what you’d expect a veteran guy with a lot of confidence would do,” said Heller. “Went out and attacked and pounded the strike zone…when he’s hitting with all four pitches, he can beat anybody in the country. He just pitched a gem today and I thought his quiet, confident demeanor, but also attacking is the Ty Langenberg we like to see and that was the guy that we got today.”
From the second to the fifth inning, Ty retired 15 of 17 batters he faced, including six strikeouts. His slider has been on and off this season, but today, when it mattered most, it was as good as it has been all season.
“The biggest thing for me was the slider, no doubt. That’s a pitch that has kind of been hit and miss all year for me and to come out here and have it be pretty competitive all day was just the biggest thing,” said Langenberg. “It really helped me play my changeup up a little bit along with the fastball, but I haven’t had my slider like that at all this year, so it was definitely the biggest part of my success today.”
With his pitch count climbing just over the 100 mark in the seventh inning, Ty hit his first threatening situation of the day. A walk issued to Jack Van Remortel gave the Wolverines two on base, with just one out in the inning. At 105 pitches, it was pitching coach Sean McGrath that came out of the dugout rather than Rick Heller. After a short chat, Langenberg stepped on the mound and got a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. The ball was hit hard, but Michael Seegers snared it at shortstop and got it to Sam Hojnar, who finished it off with a throw down to Dorighi at first base.
“I knew my pitch count was getting up there and I was starting to get fatigued a little bit and that was exactly what I was searching for,” said Langenberg. “I was really searching for a double play ball like that and it was hit a little harder that I would have liked. It scared me a little bit, but just to have that play be made was huge to get out of there and put up another zero.”
The final line for Langenberg was 7.0 innings, no runs, two hits and nine strikeouts to just two walks. He threw 67 of his 107 (62.6%) pitches for strikes, which was his second highest strike percentage against a Big Ten opponent this season.
At the plate, it was slow going early for the Iowa offense. A Raider Tello hit by pitch with the bases loaded in the third inning got the Hawkeyes on the board, but it was just 1-0 through five innings. Michigan pitchers Brandon Mann and Eamon Horwedel had combined for five strikeouts and just one hit to that point. Six free bases gave Iowa some traffic, but they weren’t able to put up a big number.
“It was pretty evident that it was going to be a challenge to score runs, especially with how the ballpark was playing today,” said Heller. “It was playing really big, the wind was blowing really hard.”
Horwedel began the sixth inning on the mound and retired the first two Iowa batters. Michael Seegers broke up the quick inning with a single and advanced to second on an errant pickoff attempt. Michigan head coach Tracy Smith decided that was enough and opted to go with ace Connor O’Halloran out of the bullpen.
The decision proved to be the wrong one, as Kyle Huckstorf doubled over the head of Jonathan Kim in centerfield on the first pitch he saw. Seegers came around to score to make it 2-0 Hawkeyes. Cody Jefferis made an impressive diving play to end the inning on a Brayden Frazier groundball ticketed for the outfield, but that only delayed Iowa’s late inning insurance runs.
“He’s done a great job all year getting guys to be uncomfortable and stay off balance and swing at pitches that are outside the zone,” said Dorighi. “For us, being able to keep him inside the zone, kind of shoe box him a little bit and get our pitch, I think that was huge for the two times we’ve faced him this week.”
Dorighi came to the plate to face O’Halloran with two runners on and one out in the seventh inning. He took his 2-1 offering and punched it the opposite way against the shift into left field for an RBI single. The Wolverines brought the infield in with runners on the corners, but Raider Tello was able to slash an RBI single through the right side to extend the lead to 4-0. Sam Hojnar added a sacrifice fly and going to the eighth inning, a 5-0 lead felt like 10-0 on a day where runs were at a premium.
“It felt like a day that could have ended 2-0, 2-1, something like that and to break out with three in the seventh was great to see and it felt like that lead was quite a bit bigger than it actually was,” said Heller.
Will Christophersen worked a scoreless inning in the eighth, while Luke Llewellyn was able to get the final three outs in the ninth inning to secure the Hawkeyes spot in the championship game.
“We knew that Michigan would show up and fight hard. They have a lot of guys in the dugout that have won championships and have a lot of pride and have beat us before,” said Heller. “We knew Tracy (Smith) and his guys would have a good plan. They did and it worked really well until we finally broke through with some hits off of O’Halloran.”
The Iowa offense did not have many opportunities with runners in scoring position, but finished 3/7 (.429) in those few chances. On the other end, Michigan was just 3/29 (.103) overall and 0/8 with runners in scoring position.
Up next for the Hawkeyes…
With the win, Iowa moves to 42-13 on the season and they advance on to Sunday’s championship game. The Hawkeyes will face the winner of the Maryland/Nebraska semifinal. The Terrapins need just one win to advance to face the Hawkeyes. First pitch on Sunday is set for 2:00pm on the Big Ten Network.
