Iowa Baseball Can't Afford to Drop Series vs. Penn State

Conference play presents an ample opportunity for the Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team to make its case for a berth in the NCAA Tournament. While the conversations about which schools are in and which ones are out won’t take place for a long time, the foundation of a team’s résumé is built now.

Iowa opens Big Ten competition with a three-game series against the Penn State Nittany Lions on March 13. A win or a loss in this series will not necessarily determine whether the Hawkeyes have a shot at making it to Omaha for the College World Series, but it certainly wouldn’t hurt to have a good showing out in University Park. As such, these next three games are a fantastic shot for head coach Rick Heller’s club to prove to the Big Ten that they are not to be messed with.

Hawkeyes Face Struggling Nittany Lions to Open Big Ten Play

Iowa baseball's Gable Mitchel — Iowa's Gable Mitchell fields a ball during a NCAA baseball game against Loras College, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2023, at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City, Iowa. | Joseph Cress/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK

Penn State is a football school. There are no ifs, ands or buts about that. The baseball team hasn’t made the NCAA Tournament since 2000 and hasn’t made it to Omaha since 1973. The program has never won a national title, though it did finish as the runner-up in 1957.

That lack of success has translated into a 4-11 start to the 2026 season. Some of the Nittany Lions’ losses include a 15-3 drubbing at the hands of Air Force in the opening game of the season, a 24-5 defeat to Kansas State that’s so mind-boggling fans can only choose to ignore it lest they want to explode into grief and despair at such a horrendous performance and an embarrassing sweep at the hands of Texas Tech. None of the games were close, with two resulting in seven-inning mercy rules.

The latest batch of losses came at the hands of Georgetown earlier this week. Penn State is on a five-game losing streak, showcasing the fact that there’s just not a ton of good baseball being played by the Nittany Lions at the moment.

This weekend’s clash at Lubrano Park in University Park is one that Iowa can ill afford to drop. Penn State is so lackluster at baseball that a series loss would almost be a death sentence in the early goings of the Big Ten campaign. Yes, it’s early, but Iowa doesn’t have a ton of margin for error given its efforts in the nonconference slate of the season. Any sort of setback, especially one as daunting as a series loss to Penn State, would be a disaster.

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