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 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 nonconference 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 9 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.
Texas (33-5) remains the consensus No. 1 team in the polls after a three-game sweep of Auburn.
Clemson (35-7) is No. 2 and North Carolina (31-9) is No. 3 by Baseball America, which dropped Tennessee and Georgia out of the top three after they both lost series. Clemson won two of three against Louisville and the Tar Heels won two of three at Virginia Tech.
D1Baseball also has Clemson at No. 2, followed by Oregon State (30-7).
Texas, at 16-2 in Southeastern Conference play, has opened a three-game lead and won 10 of its last 11 league games. Kimble Schuessler hit a pair of three-run homers to go with a two-run double for an eight-RBI day in Saturday's 14-2 win over Auburn.
Second-place Arkansas lost two of three at home to resurgent Texas A&M, which has won nine of its last 10 games and three straight SEC series.
One of the heartwarming moments of the weekend came in the first inning of Mississippi's 12-2 win at South Carolina when Austin Fawley hit a first-inning grand slam and his mom, Jennifer Fawley, caught the ball off one bounce on the left-field concourse.
Jennifer, wearing a red “Rebels Mama” T-shirt, made the grab with her right hand while holding her phone with her left. She beamed as he held up both arms in celebration.
Kansas' season keeps getting better. The Jayhawks (31-10, 12-6 Big 12) swept Kansas State at home to match their 2024 win total with 15 regular-season games left. They have their best record through 41 games since the 1993 team opened 32-9 on its way to the College World Series.
Yale freshman Jack Ohman, who gave up just one earned run in his first 47 1/3 innings, was tagged for three in 6 2/3 innings of a 7-4 win over Penn on Saturday. That bumped his nation-leading ERA from 0.19 to 0.67. ... Mason Neville homered in back-to-back games of Oregon's series win over UCLA to take over the national lead with 19. ... Miami took three games from Georgia Tech at home for its first sweep of a top-15 opponent since 2022. The Hurricanes (24-17, 9-9 ACC) have won seven of their last eight. ... Clemson sophomore Drew Titsworth pitched six scoreless innings Saturday in his first career start, a 2-1 win over Louisville. ... West Virginia (34-4) extended its nation-leading win streak to 14 games with a sweep of Cincinnati at home.
AP college sports: https://apnews.com/hub/college-sports
FILE - Iowa pitcher Cade Obermueller (33) throws during an NCAA college baseball game against Notre Dame, Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, in DeLand, Fla. (AP Photo/Phelan M. Ebenhack, File)
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranians could call abroad on mobile phones Tuesday for the first time since communications were halted during a crackdown on nationwide protests in which activists said at least 646 people have been killed.
Several people in Tehran were able to call The Associated Press and speak to a journalist there. The AP bureau in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, was unable to call those numbers back. The witnesses said SMS text messaging still was down and that internet users in Iran could connect to government-approved websites locally but nothing abroad.
The witnesses gave a brief glimpse into life on the streets of the Iranian capital over the four and a half days of being cut off from the world. They described seeing a heavy security presence in central Tehran.
Anti-riot police officers, wearing helmets and body armor, carried batons, shields, shotguns and tear gas launchers. They stood watch at major intersections. Nearby, the witnesses saw members of the Revolutionary Guard's all-volunteer Basij force, who similarly carried firearms and batons. Security officials in plainclothes were visible in public spaces as well.
Several banks and government offices were burned during the unrest, they said. ATMs had been smashed and banks struggled to complete transactions without the internet, the witnesses added.
However, shops were open, though there was little foot traffic in the capital. Tehran's Grand Bazaar, where the demonstrations began Dec. 28, was to open Tuesday. However, a witness described speaking to multiple shopkeepers who said the security forces ordered them to reopen no matter what. Iranian state media had not acknowledged that order.
The witnesses spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal.
Many remain concerned about a possible military strike by the U.S., even as President Donald Trump has said Iran wants to negotiate with Washington.
“My customers talk about Trump’s reaction while wondering if he plans a military strike against the Islamic Republic,” said shopkeeper Mahmoud, who gave just his first name out of concerns for his safety. “I don’t expect Trump or any other foreign country cares about the interests of Iranians.”
Reza, a taxi driver who also gave just his first name, said protests also remain front of mind for many.
“People — particularly young ones — are hopeless but they talk about continuing the protests," he said.
Meanwhile, it appeared that security service personnel were searching for Starlink terminals as people in northern Tehran reported authorities raiding apartment buildings with satellite dishes. While satellite television dishes are illegal, many in the capital have them in their homes and officials broadly had given up on enforcing the law in recent years.
On the streets, people also could be seen challenging plainclothes security officials, who were stopping passersby at random.
State television also read a statement about mortuary and morgue services being free — a signal some likely charged high fees for the release of bodies amid the crackdown.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, speaking to the Qatar-funded satellite news network Al Jazeera in an interview aired Monday night, said he continued to communicate with U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff.
The communication “continued before and after the protests and are still ongoing," Araghchi said. However, “Washington’s proposed ideas and threats against our country are incompatible.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Iran’s public rhetoric diverges from the private messaging the administration has received from Tehran in recent days.
“I think the president has an interest in exploring those messages,” Leavitt said. “However, with that said, the president has shown he’s unafraid to use military options if and when he deems necessary, and nobody knows that better than Iran.”
Meanwhile, pro-government demonstrators flooded the streets Monday in support of the theocracy, a show of force after days of protests directly challenging the rule of 86-year-old Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Iranian state television aired chants from the crowd, which appeared to number in the tens of thousands, who shouted “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel!”
Others cried out, “Death to the enemies of God!” Iran’s attorney general has warned that anyone taking part in protests will be considered an “enemy of God,” a death-penalty charge.
Trump announced Monday that countries doing business with Iran will face 25% tariffs from the United States. Trump announced the tariffs in a social media posting, saying they would be “effective immediately.”
It was action against Iran for the protest crackdown from Trump, who believes exacting tariffs can be a useful tool in prodding friends and foes on the global stage to bend to his will.
Brazil, China, Russia, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates are among economies that do business with Tehran.
Trump said Sunday that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports of the death toll in Iran mount and the government continues to arrest protesters.
“I think they’re tired of being beat up by the United States,” Trump said. “Iran wants to negotiate.”
Iran, through the country’s parliamentary speaker, warned Sunday that the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if Washington uses force to protect demonstrators.
More than 10,700 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests, said the U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has been accurate in previous unrest in recent years and gave the latest death toll early Tuesday. It relies on supporters in Iran crosschecking information. It said 512 of the dead were protesters and 134 were security force members.
With the internet down in Iran, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. The Associated Press has been unable to independently assess the toll. Iran’s government hasn’t offered overall casualty figures.
This frame grab from videos taken between Jan. 9 and Jan. 11, 2026, and circulating on social media purportedly shows images from a morgue with dozens of bodies and mourners after crackdown on the outskirts of Iran's capital, in Kahrizak, Tehran Province. (UGC via AP)
A picture of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is set alight by protesters outside the Iranian Embassy in London, Monday, Jan. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Alastair Grant)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media shows protesters dancing and cheering around a bonfire as they take to the streets despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world, in Tehran, Iran, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026.(UGC via AP)
In this frame grab from footage circulating on social media from Iran showed protesters once again taking to the streets of Tehran despite an intensifying crackdown as the Islamic Republic remains cut off from the rest of the world in Tehran, Iran, Saturday Jan. 10, 2026. (UGC via AP)
FILE - Protesters march on a bridge in Tehran, Iran, on Dec. 29, 2025. (Fars News Agency via AP, File)
