IU Baseball vs Purdue (Fri-Sun)

[Aaron 4,314]

Not sure what in the world happened to Brown today. His stuff has been completely unhittable and today we went to the other extreme getting absolutely shellacked for contact. Not sure if he was over compensating and trying not to be wild and ended up throwing meatballs over the plate, but whatever happened better get fixed fast. Also defense was incredibly sloppy with two really costly errors, but the reality is your star pitcher didn't deliver anywhere near at the level which he is capable of and bullpen was not great either.

Offense was not perfect but much better, and if you had told me in a Brown start you were going to get 5 runs and 11 hits that should be more than enough. We can't let this season turn into whack-a-mole where we finally somewhat solved our offense but got hit all over the yard.

Hopefully this is just a bad day (tomorrow will say a lot) but we let our elite pitching get smacked around by a really bad PU offense.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

We tried.  We put runners on the corners with no outs and a single by Barr made it 8-5.  Runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs but PUke pitching gets back-to-back called 3 strikeouts. HBP loads the bases with 2 outs for Tyler VanPelt who goes down swinging.  Final score 8-5 PUke wins.

We'll try again tomorrow.

[Brass Cannon 24,955]

We still control our destiny but back to being tied with Michigan 

[Rico 3,202]

We better win today...

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

Another rough start for our Hoosiers.

No score in the 1st but PUke strikes in the 2nd courtesy of 3 singles and 2 wild pitches by Bierman and leads 2-0.

PUke's win yesterday was just its 2nd ever at Bart Kauffman field.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

Bottom of the 2nd and Cole Barr HBP, the 26th of his IU career.  That's a tough way to get on base.  Toetz doubled to put runners on 2nd and 3rd and then a walk loaded them up with 1 out.  Hopkins struck out but Jeremy Houston gets a 2-run single to tie it up at 2-2 and that's where we are after 2 complete innings.  

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

3rd inning -- PUke held scoreless.   In the bottom of the inning, Grant Richardson blasts a solo home run to make it a 3-2 Hoosier lead.  We put 2 more runners on base with 1-out.  Fucci singles another run in to make it 4-2; runners on 1st and 3rd with 1-out and PUke makes a pitching change.  Fougerousse drives in run number 5 with a sacrifice fly.  The freshman has had a solid weekend.  After 3, Hoosiers lead 5-2. 

 

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

4th inning  --  PUke picks up a run to make it 5-3.  Bottom half of the inning Drew Ashley gets a single to extend his consecutive on base game streak to 36 but we can't get anything else going.  After 4, IU leads 5-3.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

5th inning:  Bierman sets them down in order.  Now up to 76 pitches.  Hoosiers also go down in order.  Still lead 5-3.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

6th inning:  Bierman walks the leadoff batter and an infield hit with a throwing error puts runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs.  A hit batter loads the bases.  A double play and a ground out ends the PUke threat with just 1 run scoring.  5-4 IU lead.  Bierman at 92 pitches.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

Bottom of the 6th:  Back-to-back 1 out singles put runners on 1st and 2nd and another PUke pitcher who immediately wild pitches them to 2nd and 3rd and then walks Ashley to load the bases with 1 out.  Sac. fly brings 1 run in to make it 6-4 but that's all we get.  

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

7th inning:  Nothing going on for either team; still 6-4.  Ty Bothwell replaced Bierman on the mound and set the Boilers down in order.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

8th inning:  Bothwell sets them down in order again.  For IU, a leadoff single by Kip Fougerousse and then Collin Hopkins takes the first pitch he gets over the left field wall and it's an 8-4 Hoosier lead.  Drew Ashley gets on base and is wild pitched to 2nd.  Grant Richardson singles to left scoring Ashley and it's a 9-4 lead after 8 innings.  

Hopkins started the day 0-14 and goes 2-4 this afternoon.

 

[Brass Cannon 24,955]

Looks like we will get the win. Will at least share the big ten after today.  Hard for me to root for a Michigan loss today what with them playing MSU

[Class of '66 Old Fart 85,957]

9th inning:  Matt Litwicki on the mound to close it out and sets the Boilers down in order. 

Final score 9-4.

Hoosiers get 9 runs on 14 hits, commit 2 errors and leave 8 on base.  Our pitchers allow 4 runs on 6 hits, walked 2, struck out 11,  and hit a batter.

Taking the series gives us a full point in the Governor's Cup competition.

[Aaron 4,314]

Good rebound. This was still far from the best effort and we did absolutely the bare minimum this week to win the series. Long term when we play better teams we need the pitching to be much better than it was this weekend. Bierman did enough today, but was far from perfect and both him and Brown were off this weekend. This needs to change if we are going to get where we want. Also, Hoosiers still trying to settle on a lineup, but started to hit ball last couple days and need to keep it up. 

This same result against Michigan State next week would be satisfying.