IU Baseball - March 5-7 - 2021 Season Opening Weekend

[Aaron 4,226]

Bothwell departs after five innings and 10k's and 77 pitches.

Clearly does not have the stamina to go las long as the the first three guys. Also while Minnesota is flailing and missing, his stuff looks nowhere near as filthy or dominant as Bierman, Sommer or Brown which is why he is your fourth starter. I'll take that for a 4th starter for Bothwell as we will only need him again against PSU, twice against OSU and once against Nebraska so we will probably see a lot of him out of pen on other weekends. Clearly Bierman, Sommer and Brown are your top 3 and their stamina and stuff is far superior to Bothwell despite the really nice performance tonight.

Also Sommer, Bierman and certainly Brown are all headed to big leagues next year so if Bothwell can keep improving he could be your ace next year. 

Anyway Nathan Strahl comes in for 6th and takes care of Minny 1-2-3 and we go to 7th. 

[Aaron 4,226]

Dead Center HR by Drew Ashley to make it 6-1 in 7th!

[Aaron 4,226]

IU has a chance to pretty much end this as Richardson doubled to deep RF and two walks have loaded bases with still no outs for Fucci. 

[Aaron 4,226]

Fucci strikes out but an infield single by PH Tyler Van Pelt makes it 7-1 with 1 out and bases still loaded.

[Aaron 4,226]

1-2-3 double play ends it but IU up 7-1 after 6.5 innings. 

[Aaron 4,226]

Sorry got bored. IU won easily 8-1. Nice opening weekend. Offense got going today and a 3-1 weekend is exactly how I saw it going. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 81,924]

 Indiana University baseball’s LHP Tommy Sommer was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Wednesday, the league office announced.

Sommer was outstanding for the Hoosiers this past weekend, helping the team defeat Minnesota, 5-2, on Mar. 5. The Carmel, Ind. native tossed eight shutout innings to earn the win, allowing just two hits, while matching his career-high with 10 strikeouts.

Last season, Sommer posted a record of 2-1 with a 2.61 ERA in four starts for the Hoosiers. He allowed just six earned runs in 20.2 innings pitched with 17 strikeouts and just eight walks. On the year, opponents batted just .177 against him.

The Indiana Hoosiers begins a four-game series with Penn State on Friday, Mar. 12 at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington, Ind. First pitch is scheduled for 1:00 p.m. ET.

[Aaron 4,226]

Mercer just announced he is flipping the rotation with Sommer the 1 and Bierman the 2.

One of Mercer's biggest strength's and why he has succeeded is adaptability. His first year he played power ball, despite that not really being his thing since that is what team was built for and won Big Ten and nearly led country in HR's. Again, adaptability here. Bierman was bad last weekend, while Sommer and others were terrific so Bierman loses his lead rotation spot. 

A Friday pitcher has to be nearly perfect and if you want to pitch in the lead spot you need to be outstanding and if you are not you will be replaced. Hopefully, this motivates Bierman to not lose command of his pitches and pitch like he is capable and sends message to team if you don't perform you are replacable.

Can you imagine if Archie was adaptable like Mercer? Archie's rigidness to stick to his system is what has team in so much trouble.