IU Baseball

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

SECOND SCHEDULE UPDATE

No game on Saturday

Sunday @ 1:00

Monday doubleheader starting at noon.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

We open the weekend series with a 6-4 win.  Seebold started and went 5 innings giving up just 3 hits, 1 BB and 2 earned runs.  Kraft and Vogel each pitched 2 innings and overall, the 3 limited MSU to 9 hits and walked just 2.  We had 12 hits led by Taylor with 3 and Hanley, Malamazian and 2 each.   Doubleheader scheduled for Monday.

[Aaron]

The win today should surprise no one and is the most positive aspect of the Mercer era. IU faced easily the most elite pitcher in the Big Ten and arguably the best in the country and had the perfect plan and hit him hard with small ball in a way no one else has. Say what you want about Mercer, but a top pitcher should be scared to death to face his teams as he always comes up with a brilliant plan to make sure they have their roughest start of season.

The problem though is by the same token, Mercer offenses have a penchant to struggle at times against mediocre arms far worse than anyone else. This series with any other team would feature MSU's opponent winning two out of three, losing today against the ace and sweeping the doubleheader tomorrow against much more suspect arms. However, with a Mercer team they will still win two out of three. However, they will beat the ace up as no one else has and then almost certainly inexplicably struggle and lose one of the games tomorrow and look totally confused and be shut out by one of the lesser guys.

In the end this evens out and you will end up with a really solid offense that arrives at same spot as every other team in a different way. This is a somewhat acceptable but inexplicable quirk of a Mercer team that I have learned to live with since he has been here as it gets you to same point in end.

Its the lack of pitching depth and spin ball program that Dustin Glant has created that holds the team back and needs to change. Mercer's success or failure here will be his actions or inactions of Dustin Glant and his employment here.

There are some quirks to the Mercer system as described above. However, he is a hitting guy overall and gets this cooking always, albeit in unconventional ways to same results anyone else would. These offensive anomalies are very much livable to deal with if he has a good pitching coach as he did before this with Justin Parker. 

How Mercer does or does not deal with Glant in offseason regardless of how this season finishes, will ultimately determine if this era is a success or not. The rest of the strengths and weaknesses of his program even out and can easily be dealt with as a fan since it gets to same point in end as any other head man.   

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Hoosiers have jumped off to a quick 6-0 lead in the first inning of today's first of 2 games.  Grable on the mound.

[Aaron]

3 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

Hoosiers have jumped off to a quick 6-0 lead in the first inning of today's first of 2 games.  Grable on the mound.

Good to see them beat up on a mediocre pitcher early which has been struggle in Mercer era at times as I talked about above.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

After that quick 6-0 lead, Hoosiers never looked back and won today's run shortened first game 14-2.  Grable started and pitched 3 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 0 BB.  Gilley came on and pitched the last 4 innings allowing just 1 run on 2 hits and 0 BB.  We pounded out 15 hits with Dickerson, Hanley & Moore each getting 3.  Dickerson 4 RBI and Hanley and Brenczewski each with 3.  Game #2 scheduled for a 2:55 start and a chance for a series sweep.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Hoosier bats stay hot taking a 5-0 first inning lead in game #2.  A bases loaded walk to Cerny and a Koskie grand slam HR

[mamasa]

1 hour ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

After that quick 6-0 lead, Hoosiers never looked back and won today's run shortened first game 14-2.  Grable started and pitched 3 innings giving up 1 run on 3 hits and 0 BB.  Gilley came on and pitched the last 4 innings allowing just 1 run on 2 hits and 0 BB.  We pounded out 15 hits with Dickerson, Hanley & Moore each getting 3.  Dickerson 4 RBI and Hanley and Brenczewski each with 3.  Game #2 scheduled for a 2:55 start and a chance for a series sweep.

Gilley is a really good kid. He attended the same schools my kids did.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

It's a clean sweep day in Bloomington today.  Softballers swept a series with MD and the men flexed their muscles big time against the Spartans winning today's run shortened second game 18-2.  So on the day, the Hoosiers scored 32 runs on 29 hits and our pitching staff only allowed 4 runs and 14 hits.  

Today's second game onslaught was led by Dickerson with 4 hits and 4 other players with 2 each.  In addition to Koskie's grand slam he also drove in 2 other runs for 6 RBI in the game.  Dickerson and Cerny each had 3 RBI,

Tuesday evening Ball State (23-10) will be in Bloomington for a 6:00 start.  Next weekend the Hoosiers are on the road in Champaign, IL.

[Aaron]

Glad I was wrong and IU actually beat up bad pitching today. Team has talent for big run now at postseason as performance on the mound starts to come together as it always does with Glant era in second half of season. 

Problem is it cannot take this talented of a team half a season to figure out Glant's pitching program as it always does. As I keep saying I expect them to go on another big run and potentially squeak into postseason as they always do. However, the status quo of this is not acceptable and cannot continue.

[CSP]

16 hours ago, mamasa said:

Gilley is a really good kid. He attended the same schools my kids did.

He's had a really good year 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

This evening at 6:00 we host Ball State (23-10).  Game televised on B1G+.  Dress warmly.  Temps will be dropping into the low 40's with a slight northwesterly breeze.

Preview

Radio

Live Stats

 

[CSP]

4 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

This evening at 6:00 we host Ball State (23-10).  Game televised on B1G+.  Dress warmly.  Temps will be dropping into the low 40's with a slight northwesterly breeze.

Preview

Radio

Live Stats

 

I'd think tonight would be a candidate to move the game time up an hour or two. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

5 minutes ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

I'd think tonight would be a candidate to move the game time up an hour or two. 

45 at 4:00 at 46 at 6:00 per weather.com.  Only significant difference would be having extra time to play in full sun vs. a setting sun.  Mother Nature just isn't being very springlike this month.

[CSP]

11 minutes ago, Class of '66 Old Fart said:

45 at 4:00 at 46 at 6:00 per weather.com.  Only significant difference would be having extra time to play in full sun vs. a setting sun.  Mother Nature just isn't being very springlike this month.

Sun vs no sun is a pretty significant difference. 

[Aaron]

4 minutes ago, Certified Sunshine Pumper said:

Sun vs no sun is a pretty significant difference. 

My guess is when you didn't finish until almost 6 pm last night and played three games in two days, IU was willing to trade playing in the cold tonight for a couple of extra hours of rest. 

[CSP]

9 minutes ago, Aaron said:

My guess is when you didn't finish until almost 6 pm last night and played three games in two days, IU was willing to trade playing in the cold tonight for a couple of extra hours of rest. 

Seems trivial 

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Hoosiers get a 7-5 mid-week win over Ball State.  We spotted BSU with 2 runs in its 1st but scored 5 of our own in the 3rd and added 2 more in the 5th.

Yarberry started and pitched an inning giving up 2 runs on 3 hits.  Swanson went 4.1 allowing 4 hits and walked 1 but didn't allow any runs.  With runners on 1st and 2nd and 1 out in the 6th, Rushing took the mound and ended the BSU threat.  Thomas took over in the 8th and struck out the side but loaded the bases in the 9th via a BB and 2-HBP with nobody out which brought in Kraft who gets us out of the inning and a win.

Taylor, Dickerson & Malamazian with 2 RBI each.

Cerny set a program record getting HBP for the 39th time.  Heckuva way to get your name in the record book.        https://x.com/i/status/1909754965528121377

Next weekend we're in Champaign, IL.

[Aaron]

Don't look now but IU's RPI is suddenly in top-70. Still work to do to get into top 50 to really be in contention for at-large NCAA Bid but it is within reach now with a halfway decent finish.

Pitching as it always does is coming together to be decent to close season. As I said Glant's pitching will figure it out halfway through season as it always does. The issue is this is a team that should be safely in tourney and borderline host last few seasons given talent and instead is having to make furious rallies to get into tourney contention. 

Glant's spin ball program is effective once grasped but way to hard for players to get the hang of and why it takes half a season for pitching to get going. Can't keep going through this each season.

[Class of '66 Old Fart]

Hoosiers (19-14) (9-6) in Champaign, IL for a weekend series vs. Illinois (18-12) (7-5).  All 3 games televised on B1G+ and all times are ET.

• Friday @ 7:00         Temp. low to mid 50's
• Saturday @ 4:00    Temp. upper 50's low 60's
• Sunday @ 2:00      Upper 60's to low 70's    >20 mph south winds         No rain in the weekend forecast.

Radio

Live Stats