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)
JOLIET, Ill. (AP) — An Illinois landlord who killed a 6-year-old Muslim boy and severely injured the boy's mother in a brutal hate-crime attack days after the war in Gaza began was sentenced Friday to 53 years in prison.
Joseph Czuba, 73, was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of his mother, Hanan Shaheen.
Judge Amy Bertani-Tomczak sentenced Czuba to 30 years in the boy's death and another 20 years consecutively for the attack on Shaheen. The judge also sentenced him to three years imprisonment for hate crimes. The length of the sentence makes it all but certain he will die behind bars.
“No sentence can restore what was taken, but today’s outcome delivers a necessary measure of justice,” said Ahmed Rehab, Executive Director of CAIR-Chicago. “Wadee was an innocent child. He was targeted because of who he was—Muslim, Palestinian, and loved."
Czuba did not speak during the sentencing. Czuba's attorney, Lenard, declined comment. Will County State’s Attorney James Glasgow’s office issued a statement calling Czuba a “morally reprehensible killer" and the impact of his actions “truly unfathomable.”
The boy's great-uncle, Mahmoud Yousef, was the only family member who spoke during the hearing. He said that no matter the sentence length it wouldn't be enough. The boy's parents had plans for him and Czuba robbed them of that, he said.
Yousef asked Czuba to explain why he attacked the boy and his mother, asking him what news he heard that provoked him, but Czuba did not respond, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, prosecutors said during the trial.
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors' case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba's wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child's body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee's relatives.
“He could not escape,” Michael Fitzgerald, a Will County assistant state’s attorney, told jurors at trial. “If it wasn’t enough that this defendant killed that little boy, he left the knife in the little boy’s body.”
The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before returning a verdict.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee's funeral drew large crowds and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.
Shaheen had more than a dozen stab wounds and it took her weeks to recover.
She said there were no prior issues in the two years she rented from the Czubas, even sharing a kitchen and a living room. Then after the start of the war, Czuba told her that they had to move out because Muslims were not welcome. He later confronted Shaheen and attacked her, holding her down, stabbing her and trying to break her teeth.
“He told me ‘You, as a Muslim, must die,’” said Shaheen, who testified at trial in English and Arabic though a translator.
Police testified that officers found Czuba outside the house, sitting on the ground with blood on his body and hands.
Separately, lawsuits have been filed over the boy’s death, including by his father, Odai Alfayoumi, who is divorced from Shaheen and was not living with them. The U.S. Department of Justice also launched a federal hate crimes investigation.
Yousef told reporters after the hearing that Czuba was a grandfather figure to Wadee and the family doesn’t understand what “fake news” Czuba may have heard about the war in Gaza that caused him to attack the boy and his mother. People need to understand Muslims before judging them, he said.
“Some people are bringing this war to this country,” Yousef said. “We cannot do that. We can’t bring the war here. We cannot bring hatred to this country . . . we need that to stop.”
This story has been updated to correct the spelling of ‘Mahmoud.'
Odai Al Fayoumi, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Will County Prosecutor Christopher Koch exits the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Joseph Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Odai Al Fayoumi, left, father of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, walks out of the Will County Courthouse after the sentencing of Czuba in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
Mahmoud Yousef, grandfather of Wadee Al Fayoumi, who was murdered by Joseph Czuba in 2023, speaks to the media after the sentencing of Czuba outside the Will County Courthouse in Joliet, Ill., Friday, May 2, 2025. (Pat Nabong /Chicago Sun-Times via AP)
FILE - Wadee Alfayoumi's father, Oday Al Fayoume, seated right, and his uncle Mahmoud Yousef attend a vigil for Wadee at Prairie Activity and Recreation center in Plainfield, Ill., Oct. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh, File)
FILE - Joseph Czuba, 71, stands before Circuit Judge Dave Carlson for his arraignment at the Will County, Ill., courthouse, Oct. 30, 2023, in Joliet, Ill. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast, File)
