Baseball travels to Iowa City

Dozens of shirtless players danced around their coach.

Junior catcher and preseason All-American Kyle Schwarber was the first to start dancing. He was rhythmically taking off his catcher’s gear and, eventually, his red IU shirt.

He ran to IU Coach Tracy Smith along with a few other IU players. Immediately, the mosh pit began. The players then abandoned their head coach and ran to their assistant coaches. Dozens of players now jumped shirtless, an assistant coach at the center of the mosh pit.

The scene died down, and the players dispersed, laughing. Smith had some questions.

“What the hell was that?” Smith said to nobody in particular. “Somebody want to tell me what just happened? Is that, like, some Internet thing?”

A video of the prank was later posted to the team’s official Twitter account.
The April Fools’ joke the players executed on their coaches demonstrated the looseness the team has played with the past week.

Leading into the series against Ohio State, Smith said his team had been pressing the whole season. The team was trying too hard, he said, and the subsequent results were not befitting a team ranked No. 3 in the Baseball America preseason poll.

“It’s got us inconsistency,” Smith said of his team pressing too much. “So let’s just be who we are and get back to that.”

IU swept Ohio State in Columbus, Ohio, last weekend. The Hoosiers outscored the Buckeyes 21-7 and outhit them 42-19 in the three-game series.

The No. 24 Hoosiers (15-10, 5-1) will try to replicate that success in Iowa City, Iowa, this weekend. IU will take on Iowa (16-9, 3-3) in another three-game Big Ten road stint.
The series, originally to be played in a Friday-Saturday-Sunday format, has been pushed back to a Saturday-Sunday-Monday affair because of forecasts of rain Friday.

The Hawkeyes have had mixed results this year. After taking two of three games from Nebraska — a team projected to finish second in the Big Ten in the preseason — the Hawkeyes lost three of four games, including a defeat against Bradley and two losses to Michigan.

IU played Michigan in its first Big Ten series of the year. The Hoosiers came within a diving catch on the warning track of sweeping the Wolverines.

The Hoosiers will try and stymie the efforts of Hawkeye pitcher Calvin Mathews. Mathews was named Big Ten Pitcher of the Week Monday after his performance against Michigan, in which he led Iowa to its only win in the series.

Mathews threw a complete game, surrendering six hits and two runs. He struck out nine batters and walked none.

He will be matched up against IU’s staff ace, senior Joey DeNato. DeNato is 5-1 this year with a 2.22 ERA. With his last start, DeNato now holds the record for most strikeouts in IU history.

Sophomore Christian Morris will get the start Sunday. Junior Kyle Hart, who is the normal No. 2 starter, suffered a strained forearm in his last start against Ohio State and is out of the rotation this weekend. Monday’s starter has yet to be announced.