Brayden Frazier details grand slam vs. Michigan Wolverines in Big Ten Baseball Tournament

Iowa is off and running in the 2023 Big Ten Baseball Tournament. The Hawkeyes rolled away from the Michigan Wolverines, 13-3, in their opening contest. In the process, Iowa exacted a bit of revenge for last year.

The Hawkeyes broke open a 1-1 deadlock against the Wolverines with a six-run fifth inning. It wasn’t long after Sam Hojnar’s two-out, two-RBI single when Brayden Frazier delivered the game’s big blast.

Following Hojnar’s two-RBI knock, Michael Seegers delivered a single to right field and Kyle Huckstorf was hit by pitch. That set the stage for Frazier with the bases juiced.

The 6-foot, 195 pound redshirt junior absolutely laced one to left. It was Frazier’s first career grand slam. The big bop also represented the first grand slam in the Big Ten Tournament since 2017 and the first in tournament history at Charles Schwab Field.

Frazier caught up with Big Ten Network’s Mike Hall to discuss his homer in the Hawks’ Big Ten tourney opener.

“Oh man, it’s a pretty good feeling. Honestly, that was my first one, too, so I’m kind of going through all the emotions through that. But, it was probably up there in my baseball moments in my career for sure,” Frazier said.

Dating back to little league and through high school baseball, Frazier said this was the first grand slam in his playing career. How then did he handle the moment? Was he focused on just touching every bag or the pandemonium he’d created with his teammates?

“I was looking directly at my teammates, man. There’s no better feeling than looking in the dugout and knowing I just did something big for them, because they’ve been having my back all year. We’ve had a great year this far and we’re just trying to keep it going,” Frazier said.

While it was Frazier’s first career grand slam, Iowa has hit nine grand slams this season.

“Yeah, when they told me that yesterday, I honestly didn’t know that we’d hit that many. It doesn’t seem like it, but we’ve been generous enough and fortunate enough that we’ve been hitting pretty well and we’ve gotten guys in that situation and the right guys have stepped up at the right time,” Frazier said.

Frazier has appeared in 42 games, started 24 of them and is hitting .326 on the season. The Cedar Rapids native has 13 extra base hits and 27 RBI in 2023.

Now, Iowa moves on and will face second-seeded Indiana at 2 p.m. CT on Thursday from Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Neb. Indiana topped Illinois in its opener, 4-3.

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Story originally appeared on Hawkeyes Wire