There are two things (that aren't my wife) that I love most in this life: baseball and the Iowa Hawkeyes. It's always an honor to have the opportunity to photograph the Hawks when they come to Indiana to beat up on the Hoosiers and the Boilermakers.

This past weekend, I spent three days driving back and forth to B-Town from Indy to cheer on my team and make some photographs. The team started off a little rough, dropping the first two games of the series but they ended the weekend with an extra-innings win!

I've been around baseball a lot: from my playing days, a decade in the newspaper industry covering sports and of course several more years working in the photo wells and trenches of Minor League Baseball in the Cubs and Royals systems. This group of student-athletes impressed me every day. They were polite, courteous and very well-mannered. I never heard a single cuss word in the more than 20 hours I spent with them over the course of the series. I never heard negative comments about fans in the stands, the other team or each other, despite a couple of rough games on Friday and Saturday. Kudos to Coach Heller and his staff for running a tight ship and teaching these young men not just about the game of baseball, but about life.

With that said, here's some photos of the BEST team in the country - the Iowa Hawkeyes in action against the Indiana Hoosiers. My wife's an IU grad, so to keep the peace at home I added a couple IU photos and I will say that they played a couple of well-executed games and hit the cover off the ball. #GoHawks #Hellerball Cheers!