Iowa Baseball Looking to Prove People Wrong in 2026

After a long offseason for the Iowa Hawkeyes, the college baseball season is just one day away. While the 2025 campaign began with some flowers and roses, Iowa still ended up sitting at home during the postseason. As the calendar turns to 2026, it’ll be the goal of head coach Rick Heller and the rest of the Hawkeyes to get back to the NCAA Tournament and potentially even the College World Series.

To accomplish that goal, a lot of things are going to need to go right for Iowa. For one, the pitching is going to need to continue to excel. The Hawkeyes’ pitching staff put up a 4.16 cumulative ERA last season, the 16th-best in the country, but pretty much every arm that made that happen is gone. If the team is going to have any modicum of success in 2026, then the young arms are going to need to pick up the torch and continue to pitch well. Watch out for Tyler Guerin, Brody Irlbeck and Nick Terhaar to be some of the most promising arms on the staff.

The lineup will be led by team leader and veteran Gable Mitchell. Mitchell slashed .329/.421/.476 last season, hitting five home runs and driving in 44 runs. It’ll be his offense, alongside the production of other players like Kooper Schulte, Jaixen Frost and Caleb Wulf, that will guide the Hawkeyes back to the promised land.

Hawkeyes Projected to Finish in the Middle of the Big Ten

Iowa baseball head coach Rick Heller talks to infielders during a pitching change against Bradley April 16, 2025 at Duane Banks Field in Iowa City, Iowa. | Julia Hansen/Iowa City Press-Citizen / USA TODAY NETWORK via Imagn Images

While there is promise on the roster, the national media isn’t too bullish on the Hawkeyes’ prospects this season. In its preseason Big Ten preview, D1Baseball projected Iowa to finish ninth in the conference. That’s a steep drop-off from the team’s third-place finish last season that didn’t result in it making the NCAA Tournament.

The top end of the Big Ten features some of the best college baseball programs in America in UCLA, the No. 1 team in the land, and Oregon. USC, which D1Baseball has placing third, should also be in contention. Nebraska, Penn State, Indiana, Michigan and Washington are the other teams projected to place higher than the Hawkeyes.

Of course, preseason projections are just projections, meaning that no matter what the national media thinks, the team can always prove it wrong. In order to do that, the young arms are going to need to pop off, and the hitters are going to have to continue to flourish. It’ll be a tall task, but Iowa, which last made the NCAA Tournament in 2023 and hasn’t made the College World Series since 1972, could accomplish its goals should everything break right.

What’s Next for Iowa Baseball?

Iowa will start its season Feb. 13 at the MLB Desert Invitational against Kansas State. First pitch is slated for 2 p.m. CST. It’ll then face Air Force on Feb. 14 before rounding out the trip to the desert against Northeastern on Feb. 15. Its first game at Duane Banks Stadium in Iowa City will be against UW-Platteville on Feb. 17.

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