It’s been a pretty quiet offseason for the Iowa Baseball team, but they’ve filled a couple of positions of need in the transfer portal. On Saturday afternoon, Missouri outfielder Jackson Beaman announced his commitment to Iowa after entering the transfer portal. He will be a redshirt junior and will have two years of eligibility remaining.
After entering the portal back on May 25th, the Iowa coaching staff reached out to Beaman on June 14th. He was in Iowa City for a visit on Friday.
“It just felt right,” Beaman told HawkeyeReport. “The coaching staff, the city and the university made it seem like the right fit immediately. The development at Iowa is off the charts, the fit with Iowa’s coaching staff, the culture, the conference and only being five hours from home was too good of an opportunity to turn down.”
“I had a lot of offers and interests,” said Beaman. “I chose Iowa over Jacksonville State, Baylor, Florida Gulf Coast, Austin Peay, Southern Illinois, Appalachian State and Kansas. That’s who it came down to at the end.”
This past season, Jackson appeared in 34 games with 25 starts for the Tigers. He batted .247, with a .414 on-base percentage, including four doubles, six home runs and 19 RBI’s. He had a three-hit, seven RBI game against Northern Kentucky on March 2nd, while he hit two home runs against Purdue Fort Wayne on March 9th. Beaman recorded six multi-hit games and three multi-RBI games.
“I would say I’m a toolsy type of player who plays with a ton of passion and energy, but I like to let my play do the talking,” said Beaman. “I would say I bring a powerful bat to Iowa, as well as a strong arm and good outfield defense.”
“The coaching staff said they see me as a guy that can come in and be a middle of the order bat for Iowa, as well as playing the outfield.”
Beaman missed the entire 2023 season at Missouri as a sophomore with a knee injury, but spent last summer playing with the Bismarck Larks in the Northwoods League. He batted .292, with nine doubles, ten home runs and 37 RBI’s over 42 games.
“I plan on playing summer ball the second half of the summer. I’m not sure where yet though. My focus this summer is mainly to just get out and play, get my swings off, get comfortable playing every day and see good pitching regularly.”
After redshirting as a true freshman in 2021, Jackson made his collegiate debut against Nicholls State early in the 2022 season. He appeared in eight games, including one start. Beaman hit his first career home run against St Louis.
Out of Lincoln High School in Missouri, Beaman was rated as the #7 shortstop and the #34 overall prospect in the state by Perfect Game. He was a top 500 recruit in the country and was named a 2020 Perfect Game Preseason Central Region Honorable Mention All-American.
Looking at the Hawkeye outfield going into next season, the upcoming decision for Sam Petersen will have a large impact on the outlook for the group. An outfield duo of Petersen/Beaman would be solid defensively, while providing a lot of double and home run power at the plate. The coaching staff has plenty of options outside of those two, including Andy Nelson, Ben Wilmes, Connor Hennings, Kellen Strohmeyer and Kirkwood transfer Miles Risley. Nelson and Wilmes combined to start 80 games this past season.
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