IU Baseball

[CSP]

FR Brummel looked good today. (Brewers draftee)

We've only seen Brayton Thomas once so far this season, I hope to see him live soon. Big game on Wednesday. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Originally scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.

[Aaron]

IU falls 8-4 to Xavier and is 3-5 overall and still has not beaten a good squad.

This team has two massive issues right now and neither have anything to do with pitching despite all the criticism the last few seasons here. The pitching is not elite but is totally fine despite being a big unknown coming in. They have two solid starters and several short relievers who have been adequate as well as a long relief guy in Drew Buhr who is elite. This unit is doing more than enough given expectations, and keeping team ERA under six given offensive surge in college baseball as a whole is acceptable and this is where they are at.

Where this team is failing is offensively where average needs to be at or near .300 minimum as a team in this day and age. They are about 25 points to low here and the hitting with runners on base is atrocious. Also, the defense is awful with way to many errors. 

If they can get that average up a bit and hit with runners in scoring position, you have the team you did two years ago that won over 40 games and made Regional Final. I was really worried about pitching and as long as this holds at this level and offense hits like expected this team will be fine.

This team always starts slowly and struggles with defense and this year is no different. However, it is usually not the offense that needs to improve so this is something different and hopefully leaves optimism if this level of pitching holds.

Xavier is a likely postseason squad that will be near the top of the Big East and IU is expected to do similar in Big Ten. Both these leagues are essentially the Mountain West in baseball as an elite Mid-Major that gets 3-4 bids a yr. but awful at bottom. Can't beat an equal like the Musketeers when offense fails miserably with runners on base and the middle infield boots the ball around.   

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Men are in DeLand, FL this coming weekend for a 4-game series.

• Fri. the 28th at 1:00 pm - Mount St. Mary's.
• Fri, the 28th at 6:30 pm - Stetson
• Sat. the 1st at 1:00 pm - Stetson
• Sun. the 2nd at 11:00 am - Mount St. Mary's 

Radio - All 4 games

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Lineup for our first game of 2 today.

[Aaron]

IU won easily 18-5 in opener over Mount St Mary's. This team has shown they have no issues beating teams at the bottom of Division One. Its beating others that needs to start happening to make hay on the resume.  

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Not to be outdone by our softball team, the men used St. Mary's for batting practice in pounding 18 hits and an 18-5 win.  Taylor and Dickerson each with 2 HR and Taylor finished with 5 hits and 6 RBI.  Seebold started and went 3 innings followed by Brummel, Ryan & Telfer.  

[Aaron]

Another dominant win. This time 8-1 over host Stetson. For once it was the opponent who committed all the errors and gave themselves no chance.

The big development though was Ben Grable throwing five shutout innings. If he can become a third starter that can give four or five innings while pitching well, that changes a lot come conference play. It is already known that Seebold and Giley can start and give you 4-6 innings and if Grable can do same, team has three solid starters for weekend series for Big Ten play for first time since 2021. 

As I have said the pitching to me looks more promising then it has since that 2021 campaign (offense struggled that yr). If the offense can just get going like it did today and the defense can not be terrible, you are in great position to compete for league title.  

[Aaron]

Not as good today. Fell 8-4 to Stetson this time. The offense still needs to be more consistent to get where the team wants to be. 

[MemphisHoosier]

22 minutes ago, Aaron said:

Not as good today. Fell 8-4 to Stetson this time. The offense still needs to be more consistent to get where the team wants to be. 

Lots of schedule left, but this loss coupled with the UNLV L's will not look great on the Team Sheet come selection season - ugh.

[Aaron]

1 hour ago, MemphisHoosier said:

Lots of schedule left, but this loss coupled with the UNLV L's will not look great on the Team Sheet come selection season - ugh.

The amazing thing is everyone was worried about the pitching but that has been ok to solid in all but one game.

You never thought it would be the offense with the talent in this lineup that would struggle. Especially since hitting has been the strength of the Mercer era in every season but 2021.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

The offense came alive today pounding out 18 hits in a 20-7 win over Mount St. Mary's.  The first 4 batters in the order accounted for 11 of the hits.  Taylor, Dickerson & Hanley each had 3 hits.  Dickerson had 6 RBIs.  Yarberry started but gave up 4 early runs and we used 3 more pitchers the rest of the way and they limited MSM to just 4 hits the rest of the way.  

Tuesday night we host Northern Kentucky at 4:00 and next weekend we start B1G play on the road for a 3-game series at Penn State.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

First pitch moved up to 3:00 on Tuesday.

Tomorrow afternoon at 4:00,   3:00 Northern Kentucky will be in town.  Game will be televised on B1G+.  Some rain in the forecast but right now it looks like a dry window until 7:00 pm.  Temp around 60; wind SSE at 16 mph.

Radio

Live Stats

Edited March 3 by Class of '66 Old Fart
Time Change

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Northern Kentucky leaves Bart Kauffman field with a 13-11 win as we leave the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 9th.  Brutal day for our pitching staff collectively allowing 16 hits, 8 BB and 3 HBP.   7 of NKU's hits were extra base variety -- 3 doubles, 2 triples and 2 HR.   Brummel started and didn't get a single out before being pulled.  We had 14 hits of our own but left 14 runners on base.  B1G season starts this weekend at Penn State.

[WayneFleekHoosier]

Northern Kentucky leaves Bart Kauffman field with a 13-11 win as we leave the tying runs on 2nd and 3rd in the bottom of the 9th.  Brutal day for our pitching staff collectively allowing 16 hits, 8 BB and 3 HBP.   7 of NKU's hits were extra base variety -- 3 doubles, 2 triples and 2 HR.   Brummel started and didn't get a single out before being pulled.  We had 14 hits of our own but left 14 runners on base.  B1G season starts this weekend at Penn State.

I hate this team. I want to love them but I hate them. That’s all for now. Lol.


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[Aaron]

I'm going another way with this. Yes giving up 13 runs stinks. However, this pitching staff while solid at the top, has only 5-6 guys you can count on. We know Dustin Glant takes half a season to develop depth on his staff and a ton of runs will be given up on a five game week. Until Mercer demands Glant figure this out from the get go, this team will be rallying late to try to squeak into the tourney and catch fire as they have done nearly every year since he has been here. This is a known and not changing until more is demanded and clearly the staff is OK with this.

What is unacceptable is leaving 14 runners on base and this is why team is not hitting expectations. They are leaving a ridiculous number of runners on base offensively all season and if they would stop this they could work around the pitching. The staff has no depth. What they do have are multiple high end draft picks failing to drive runs in as they are projected to do.

I don't like the pitching at the back end but its giving you exactly what one would project. Leaving all these runners on base is not something that can be excepted given the projection and hitting ability from this lineup. 

This is where team is failing to meet expectations is clutch hitting at times. The pitching while terrible beyond top few on staff is expected with this personnel. Leaving these amount of runners on base given the quality of arms team is facing in midweek is well below par and more should be demanded.   

[WayneFleekHoosier]

I'm going another way with this. Yes giving up 13 runs stinks. However, this pitching staff while solid at the top, has only 5-6 guys you can count on. We know Dustin Glant takes half a season to develop depth on his staff and a ton of runs will be given up on a five game week. Until Mercer demands Glant figure this out from the get go, this team will be rallying late to try to squeak into the tourney and catch fire as they have done nearly every year since he has been here. This is a known and not changing until more is demanded and clearly the staff is OK with this.
What is unacceptable is leaving 14 runners on base and this is why team is not hitting expectations. They are leaving a ridiculous number of runners on base offensively all season and if they would stop this they could work around the pitching. The staff has no depth. What they do have are multiple high end draft picks failing to drive runs in as they are projected to do.
I don't like the pitching at the back end but its giving you exactly what one would project. Leaving all these runners on base is not something that can be excepted given the projection and hitting ability from this lineup. 
This is where team is failing to meet expectations is clutch hitting at times. The pitching while terrible beyond top few on staff is expected with this personnel. Leaving these amount of runners on base given the quality of arms team is facing in midweek is well below par and more should be demanded.   

Team stinks all the way around AND pitching is awful. Losing is awful. Northern Kentucky or whoever it was today. At some point you’ve got to locate/develop some legitimate aces. It’s not like we are facing the Yankees or Braves. Pitching rules baseball games and ignoring that isn’t defensible.


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[Aaron]

11 minutes ago, WayneFleekHoosier said:

Team stinks all the way around AND pitching is awful. Losing is awful. Northern Kentucky or whoever it was today. At some point you’ve got to locate/develop some legitimate aces. It’s not like we are facing the Yankees or Braves. Pitching rules baseball games and ignoring that isn’t defensible.


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I actually think they have potential starters in Grable, Seebold, and Giley who can all be decent for weekend series. The problem is the depth outside Buhr and maybe 1-2 others is beyond terrible and on a four game week it is going to snowball like this.

The offense compared to expectation is far more disappointing right now. That guys like Cerny and Oliver who are projected as high draft picks are hitting this badly is inexcusable. While the back end of the pitching staff like today is terrible no one should have expectations for much better there.

[cbp4iu]

I think Mercer is a good guy but just an average coach. 

[Aaron]

Just now, cbp4iu said:

I think Mercer is a good guy but just an average coach. 

Average is fair. Above average recruiter, very flexible at changing things when needed (which is why team improves as season gets later), average to below average teaching fundamentals.

Not the best or worst and his record shows that with 3 NCAA’s in five yrs all coming because team got hot late.