AP FILE PHOTO - Iowa's Andy Nelson (17) runs to first base during a college baseball game against Notre Dame on Feb. 21 in DeLand, Fla.

No one is surprised that West Coast additions UCLA, Oregon, Southern California and Washington are lined up in a row in the Big Ten Conference baseball standings.

What’s surprising is that Iowa is the one team in front of them.

The Hawkeyes (27-11, 17-4), picked ninth in the conference by D1Baseball.com, are coming off a three-game sweep at Michigan and start the week 2 1/2 games ahead of second-place UCLA.

Iowa now starts one of the toughest finishing Big Ten stretches. It hosts Indiana this week, visits Washington on May 2-4 and closes at home against Oregon on May 15-17. All three opponents are in the top six in the standings.

The Hawkeyes also play Oregon State in a non-conference series on May 9-11 in Des Moines, Iowa.

The Hawkeyes lead the conference in batting (.310), with Gable Mitchell, Reese Moore, Miles Risley and Ben Wilmes each hitting .320 or higher. They are averaging better than nine runs per game in conference play.

Their weekend rotation is led by left-hander Cade Obermueller, whose decision to return to school after being selected in the 19th round in the 2024 Major League Baseball amateur draft is paying off. His fastball is up a couple of ticks into the low 90s, and he’s added polish to his slider and changeup. He leads the Big Ten in strikeouts and has cut his walk rate in half.

Obermueller (4-2), Aaron Savary (6-0) and Reece Beuter (4-0) have combined to go 14-2 with a 3.34 ERA and 10.6 strikeouts and 3.5 walks per nine innings.