2015 Perfect Game College Baseball Preview Index | 2015 Big Ten Conference Preview
Baseball
has never been the main attraction at the University of Iowa.
Football and wrestling put Iowa City on the map in the 1970s and
'80s, led by Hayden Fry on the gridiron and Dan Gable in the gym.
More recently, the Hawkeyes have been to 12 bowl games in the last 14
years, and the wresting program is currently ranked No. 1 in the
country, having won 23 of the last 39 national championships.
A
school that counts former Houston Astros manager Bo Porter as one of
its very few contributions to professional baseball, Iowa ended the
2013 season with just two winning campaigns in its last 17 seasons.
So when Jack Dahm's contract as head coach was not renewed after the
2013 season, Rick Heller was named as his replacement. With little
fanfare and low expectations, Heller guided the 2014 Hawkeyes to a
surprising eight-win improvement over 2013. All of a sudden, the
Hawkeyes are on the rise.
A
native of Eldon, Iowa, Coach Heller started his coaching career at
Upper Iowa – a Division III school – in 1987. He was 23 years
old, the youngest head coach in the country. In 12 seasons with his
alma mater, Heller was named the Iowa Conference Coach of the Year
four times, won three regular season titles and one conference
tournament championship.
In
2000, he was hired by Northern Iowa and delivered back-to-back 30-win
seasons in 2001 and 2002 for the first time in school history. He
also led his team to four Missouri Valley Conference tournament
births and a conference championship in 2001. After 10 seasons with
the Panthers, Coach Heller coached Indiana State for four years
(2010-13), leading the Sycamores to their first outright Missouri
Valley Conference championship in school history.
Given
his past success, it should've come as no surprise when, in his first
year at Iowa, Coach Heller guided the Hawkeyes to a 9-1 start (the
program's best start since 1940), a Big Ten tournament berth, and a
conference tournament win.
“When
Coach Heller came in, his expectation was to win,” Iowa junior
righthander Blake Hickman told Perfect Game over the phone last week.
“It's been unbelievable to see how fast the program has progressed
since my freshman year. We have more of a fan base and the players
want to be here now.”
Since
taking over the program, Coach Heller challenged his players not to
win games, but to help change the culture of Iowa baseball.
“I
told the players on day one that we would love them and care for them
like we recruited them,” he said. “We just asked them to buy into
a philosophy, a plan and a system that we wanted to put into place
that would change the face of Iowa baseball. And they did an
unbelievable job of that. Usually when you do things that way, the
wins follow. And that's exactly what happened.”
A
team comprised of a whopping 18 juniors and just a handful of
seniors, sophomores and freshman, the pitchers blossomed and the
offense soared in Coach Heller's first season. After fielding one of
the worst offenses in the Big Ten a year before, Coach Heller's 2014
lineup ranked first in the conference in batting average, hits, runs
and on-base percentage.
But
he's quick to defer praise for the offensive turnaround.
"The
kids are the ones who should take credit,” he said. “We just
changed the system, and the kids bought in. If you can't get the kids
to buy in and listen, nothing else really matters. But because they
bought in and showed signs of life, we've been able to progress the
program much faster than I expected.”
Iowa Head Coach Rick Heller has made an immediate impact in guiding the Hawkeyes (Photo: Brian Ray / hawkeyessports.com).
Thanks
to the efforts of Athletic Director Gary Barta, Associate Athletic
Directory Fred Mims and generous donations from a few boosters, the
Iowa baseball program has received a complete overhaul that includes
new astroturf in the infield, padded walls in the outfield, a new
video scoreboard, a batter's eye, plus renovated batting cages and
locker rooms for the players. The next phase will include new stadium
seating, a project Coach Heller hopes to see completed in the next
few years.
The
Hawkeyes enter the 2015 season returning seven position players,
their designated hitter and nine pitchers from last season.
A
multi-year All-Conference Big Ten center fielder, Eric Toole returns
for his senior season as “one of the best leadoff hitters in the
conference,” according to Coach Heller.
All-Big
Ten players Jake Mangler and Nick Day return to play second and third
base, respectively. Mangle, according to Coach Heller, is the team
leader, while Day flashes arguably the best defense at the hot corner
in the entire conference. Senior Dan Potempa, a lefthanded designated
hitter who was Iowa's top bat in conference play last season, returns
to lead the Hawkeyes' offense. And backstop Jimmy Frankos, who
emerged as the everyday catcher midway through 2014, returns to lead
Iowa's pitching staff from behind the plate.
Iowa's
starting rotation boasts some power arms, including Friday night
starter Tyler Peyton – who also hit .331 as a first baseman last
season. On the mound, Peyton flashes a 90s heater and what Coach
Heller calls “a tremendous slider.”
Calvin
Mathews – Iowa's top starter last year – will start 2015 as the
team's Sunday starter after missing time last season with a shoulder
injury. In 11 starts as a sophomore, Mathews posted a team-best 2.72
ERA in 72 2/3 innings.
Blake
Hickman – who throws 93-95 mph – gives Iowa a trio of electric
arms at the top of its rotation.
Although
Hickman is now known for what he can do on the mound, his baseball
career started behind the plate.
The
Midwest's top catching prospect out of high school, Hickman – a
native of Chicago – was selected in the 20th round of
the 2012 First-Year Player Draft by the Cubs. But he turned down their
offer for a chance to play at Iowa.
“It
was nice to be drafted by the Cubs,” he said. “I just wasn't
ready for professional baseball at the time.”
Hickman
spent his freshman year behind the plate for the Hawkeyes, hitting
.220 in 91 at-bats. When Coach Heller took over in July of 2013, he
presented Hickman with a new idea.
“A
lot of the scouts I knew asked me if I was going to talk to Blake
about pitching,” Coach Heller said. “It just so happened that he
was playing in the Northwoods League for the Waterloo Bucks at the
time. He was catching and started to pitch for them in the summer to
try it out. So when I called Blake, he wasn't against it.”
Hickman
was slowly eased into pitching. By April, he gave up his catcher's
mitt to focus on pitching full time. Iowa sent him to the Cape Cod
League last summer to gain more experience on the mound.
“Playing
in the Cape was an unbelievable experience,” Hickman said. “Playing
against those guys – the top hitters in college baseball – that
boosted my confidence a lot coming into this year, just by throwing
against them.
“I'm
able to locate my fastball now,” he continued. “And I'm confident
on the mound and confident in myself. Now, if things go wrong, I can
just take a step back, take a deep breath and just go after the
hitters and not think about the negatives.”
Coach
Heller is extremely pleased with Hickman's progress over the summer.
“Like
any converted position player, he was more of a thrower than a
pitcher at first,” he said. “Blake just relied on his arm
strength, which is pretty good. But now I consider him more of a
pitcher. He didn't have a changeup before. But now he possesses a
really good changeup that he can use consistently to go along with
his mid-90s fastball. He had a knack for his breaking ball from the
beginning, and now he throws it consistently with similar arm action
to his fastball.”
With
three anchors at the top of the rotation – plus a closer in Tyler
Radtke who walked-on last season with a mid-90s fastball – the
Hawkeyes have a formidable staff to complement an offense that
figures to be one of the best in the Big Ten.
And
after a Big Ten conference tournament win last season, the Hawkeyes
are poised for an even deeper run in 2015. But Coach Heller warns
that it won't be easy.
“To
win at a high level, you have to believe that you're going to,” he
said. “And getting a group of guys who hadn't won a lot to believe
that it was possible was one of the big challenges last year. There
are going to be some really good teams that don't get into our
conference tournament this season. So we have to make sure that we
fight through the adversities throughout the season and fight through
the injuries that you know will happen. And hopefully we'll be there
at the end.”
Despite
the challenges ahead, Hickman has big expectations for himself and
his teammates.
“We
want to get back to the Big Ten tournament and win the whole thing,”
he said. “That's all we talk about now. We have the personal goals,
but the ultimate team goal is to get to the College World Series. But
we have steps to take first. It's not going to be easy because the
Big Ten has a lot of good teams and good players. But we want to get
back and put Iowa on the map.
“Indiana
has destroyed this conference for the last few years, and we've had
enough of that. It's our turn.”