Iowa Baseball INF Ben Swails to enter the transfer portal
The Iowa Baseball season came to a close less than a week ago, but there’s no rest for coaches in college athletics. Transfer portal season will be in full swing soon enough and the Hawkeyes have seen their first name depart from the roster. Junior infielder Ben Swails announced on Thursday morning that he plans to enter the portal after four seasons with the program. Swails will have one year of eligibility remaining.
After two seasons with limited at-bats, including redshirting his true freshman season, Swails appeared in 84 games with 65 starts the last two years. In those 84 appearances, Swails slashed .324/.424/.511, with 71 hits, 18 doubles, seven home runs and 32 RBI’s. He also stole 17 bases on 20 attempts. Injuries played a role in limiting him to just 30 starts this past season, but he finished the year with a .343 batting average, tallying 15 hits over the final eight games of the season.
What this means for the Iowa Baseball infield…
The Hawkeye infield already has lost three starters, 2B Gable Mitchell (198 gms), SS Kooper Schulte (103 gms) and 1B Caleb Wulf (105 gms) to graduation, so the addition of Ben Swails to that group of departures leaves the coaching staff with a lot of things to figure out. They are set to return 3B Jaixen Fros t and SS Kyle Alivo, but with Alivo heavily figuring into the pitching plans, the coaching staff is going to need to find at least a couple of possible starters via the portal or JUCO ranks. With the pitching staff set to return mostly intact, Rick Heller and Co. are going to be tasked with making a few offensive additions that will give the Hawkeyes the ability to compete for a regional next season.
