The Iowa Baseball team travels to Champaign this weekend for a three-game series against the first place Illinois Fightining Illinois to wrap up Big Ten play. They will be doing it with their starting rotation back at full strength. On Thursday afternoon, the Hawkeyes announced that sophomore left-handed pitcher Cade Obermueller will get the start in the series opener on Friday. With the Big Ten Tournament on the horizon, it will be a much welcomed sight to see Obermueller on the mound after missing his last two starts with an undisclosed injury.
Obermueller has started ten games for the Hawkeyes this season, posting a 3.75 ERA over 48.0 innings, including 56 strikeouts to 48 free bases. Opponents are batting .182 against Cade, while averaging just 0.63 hits per inning. In his last start against Rutgers back on April 19th, Obermueller allowed just one run on five hits over 6.1 innings, including six strikeouts to just two walks. He threw 62 of his 98 (63.3%) pitches for strikes.
He will face off against normal Friday starter RHP Jack Crowder for Illinois. Crowder has made 12 starts this season, posting a 5.07 ERA over 65.2 innings, including 58 strikeouts to 31 walks. The Illini have won seven of the last eight games that Crowder has started, but fell to Ohio State last Friday. He allowed five runs on five hits over 6.0 innings, including four strikeouts to three walks.
Before the Hawkeyes head to Omaha for the Big Ten Tournament from May 21-26, Cade will have the opportunity to make a pair starts before the regular season comes to a close. After facing Illinois this week, Iowa will face Florida International for a three-game series in Des Moines to close out the regular season.
First pitch on Friday in Champaign against the Illini is set for 6:00pm CT on BTN+.
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