Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller says the pitching staff needs to cut back on free bases as they get set to open a Big Ten series Friday at home against Minnesota. In 197-and-a-third innings Hawkeye pitchers have walked or hit 190 batters. It is a major factor in a 13-10 start for a team that was ranked as high as 18th at the start of the season.

Heller says while the bullpen has made strides the past couple of weeks the starting staff has not. Iowa’s three main starting pitchers have walked or hit 90 batters in 80 innings of work.

While the pitching as struggled the defense and offense has shined. The Hawkeyes are hitting .319 as a team and averaging more than nine runs per game.

Heller says Iowa will honor retiring Minnesota coach John Anderson this weekend. Anderson has been the Gopher coach since prior to the 1982 season and led the program to 21 Big Ten regular season and tournament titles.

Iowa opened Big Ten play last week by winning two of three games at Purdue.