IU Baseball: Big Ten Tourney

[Aaron 4,147]

Ugh. Baseball is cruel sometimes.

Richardson did exactly what he should of there with runners at 1st and 2nd and two outs, trying to hit a line drive double down RF line and barely fouled it off. Still 0-0 after 5.

[Aaron 4,147]

Gorski has quite the range in CF as always. Nice catch

[Aaron 4,147]

Leadoff triple for Ashley in 6th for his second hit. He's at third no outs. Lets break the scoreless tie.

[Aaron 4,147]

There it is! Gorski singles up middle on ground past the drawn in infield and IU leads 1-0.

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

Hopefully after almost 90 pitches we see a pitching change by Iowa jeez. 

But awesome to get the lead. 

[Aaron 4,147]

We give the run right back. Ugh and Milto tiring.  

[Aaron 4,147]

1st and 2nd still 1 out and Milto running out of gas.

[Aaron 4,147]

Another single loads bases with 1 out. Time to pull Milto.

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

Ugh this is gonna be bad

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

Mercer is a great coach but I do think his biggest weakness is not recognizing when it’s time to pull a starter

[Aaron 4,147]

Iowa takes the lead on a sac fly but that could of been much worse as that ball was hit to track. Milto leaves. Actually his best performance in a while but just ran out of gas this inning. Makes me feel a bit better for first game of NCAA tourney.

[Aaron 4,147]

1 minute ago, Brass Cannon said:

Mercer is a great coach but I do think his biggest weakness is not recognizing when it’s time to pull a starter

I kind of agree with that but there was no reason to pull him after 6 when he was cruising. He just ran out of gas and it was to late by the time he had bullpen up. Only fault you maybe could have is not having bullpen warming up to start 7th. At other times this year though that's been a minor issue.

[Aaron 4,147]

And Manous doesn't help at all giving up another single to make it 3-1. Mercer got best reliever in there and he failed us.

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

3-1 now. Offense better wake up. On the upside I guess we won’t face any more Friday night starters this tournament 

[Aaron 4,147]

Iowa using small ball to perfection. To be fair IU has certainly adjusted to park and took the soft swings they needed. A ton of strikeouts again but certainly not from swinging for fences. We've gone for the small ball hits and just missed. That Richardson missed double which was nothing but the baseball gods not being on our side is looming really large.

[Aaron 4,147]

IU out of inning but has work to do now.

[Aaron 4,147]

Now we've just lost our focus as Richardson drops a can of corn fly ball for another run. 4-1.

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

This is disappointing to say the least 

[Brass Cannon 24,064]

Top 3 seeds all go down. 

[Aaron 4,147]

Well that did not go well. Play loser of Minny and Nebraska at 2pm tomorrow.

Given we are stuck where we are for NCAA tournament, I am not sure it is worst thing in world to go out tomorrow and rest up nicely for NCAA tourney. As I said from beginning, Big Ten Tourney means little to us other than pride and this park could not be worse for the style we play. We certainly adjusted our swings for this cavernous field but still could not find the correct placement and gaps.

All the high seeds are having issues today and we were no different. Michigan’s loss may have hurt their season for good if they don’t beat Illinois tomorrow. For us, as I have said many times it does not change our NCAA tourney fate whether we go 0-2 or 4-0.

Part of me feels better going into Regional's if Milto pitches like tonight as we have a much better chance to win then. With that said McDonald is a good ace, but there are certainly better ones and unless our offense wakes up a bit against the lead pitchers we will be playing from behind in NCAA tourney as we have last two years. The only good thing is wherever we go for NCAA tournament will be friendlier to hitters that Omaha, but we have struggled in every park besides Michigan's against Friday night guys when we face a good team.

I would not be at all surprised in NCAA tourney to again lose first game, then work our way back to Regional Final and then go down swinging to one seed exactly like last year. 

I am on vacation rest of Big Ten Tourney and either at NCAA Tourney or on vacation again. Either way this now really is the last time I can post in game this year. I will post previews and recaps though.