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Class of '66 Old Fart

IU Baseball vs Illinois - 4/9 - 4/12/21 - BTN+

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3-game series this weekend and badly need to right the ship and get back to winning ways.  All 3 games will be televised on BTN+.

Friday @ 5:00 - Tommy Sommer

Saturday @ 2:00 - McCade Brown

Sunday @ 1:00 - Gabe Bierman

Live Stats

Radio

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Indiana Hoosiers return home to host Illinois in a three-game, Big Ten series this weekend at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington, Ind.
 
• Indiana has dropped their last five contests, three of which by less than three runs. IU's series loss to Ohio State last weekend was the first for the Hoosiers this season.
 
• Jeff Mercer is in his third season at the helm of the Indiana baseball program. He led the Hoosiers to a Big Ten regular season title in 2019, earning him Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.
 

INSIDE #IUBASE
• The Indiana pitching staff continues to thrive this season, posting a team ERA of 2.81 with 181 strikeouts in 150.2 innings pitched. IU has allowed just 57 earned runs on 93 hits and has limited opponents to a batting average of .174.
 
• Offensively, the Hoosiers have been led by INF Cole Barr, who is hitting a team-best .361 on the year with two home runs, seven doubles and 11 RBI. OF Grant Richardson has hit a team-high three home runs and stole a team-best five bases, while INF Jordan Fucci leads IU with 14 RBI.
 
• The Hoosiers lead the Big Ten in team ERA (2.81), hits allowed per nine innings (5.56) and WHIP (1.12). IU ranks sixth in the nation, second and seventh, respectively, in those categories.
 
• Individually, RHP McCade Brown leads the Big Ten in strikeouts (49), is second in strikeouts per nine innings (15.75), third in hits allowed per nine innings (4.82) and fourth in ERA (2.57). LHP Tommy Sommer ranks third in ERA (2.45) and sixth in hits allowed per nine innings (5.52).
 
• Indiana is ranked No. 24 in the nation by Perfect Game. The Hoosiers are also receiving votes in the NCBWA poll.
 
• Since the start of the 2008 season, Indiana leads the Big Ten in wins (440) and conference wins (188). The Hoosiers have made seven NCAA Regionals over that span, the most out of any current Big Ten team.
 
•RHP McCade Brown was named the D1Baseball/AstroTurf Player of the Week, the Perfect Game/Rawlings Pitcher of the Week, Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week and the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after a school-record performance against Penn State on Mar. 13.
 
• The sophomore hurler matched the Indiana school record with a career-high 16 strikeouts in seven, no-hit innings. He also broke the IU record for most strikeouts in a Big Ten game, eclipsing the previous record of 13.
 
• LHP Tommy Sommer was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Mar. 9. 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.
 
• Indiana OF Grant Richardson was named a First-Team Preseason All-American by both Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball. He was also named Third-Team Preseason All-American by D1Baseball.
 
• Before the season, Indiana was tabbed to win the Big Ten in 2021 by Perfect Game. OF Grant Richardson was named the Player of the Year and to the Preseason All-Big Ten team. He was joined on the preseason All-Big Ten team by RHP Gabe Bierman and RHP Connor Manous.
 
• RHP Gabe Bierman, OF Grant Richardson and LHP Tommy Sommer were all named to the Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch List. IU was picked to finish second in the Big Ten behind Michigan in a preseason poll conducted of the league's coaches.
 
• After leading the Hoosiers to the 2019 Big Ten regular season championship, Jeff Mercer was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Mercer became the first Big Ten head coach since 1982 (John Anderson, Minnesota) to win a regular season conference title in his first season as the skipper.  He was just the second coach in IU history – in any sport, men's or women's – to win an outright Big Ten championship in his (or her) first year.

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With the weather this weekend, I would not be surprised if they do a doubleheader Friday and a single game Sunday or a Single game Friday and a doubleheader Sunday or even a Friday-Sunday-Monday series if Illinois can stay that long.

Keep an eye on series changes given Saturday looks awful.

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Absolute disaster for Sommer in 5th and reason we've got to change our hitting approach. Illini pitcher who is their one good guy has been good and thrown a low pitch count because we are impatient but got a solo shot out of it.

Illinois on other hand was patient against Sommer, worked counts and will chase him after 5 innings because of it. They also beat him up for three runs with two outs in fifth, which as the Friday guy he needs to finish an inning off. He also gave up an extra run with two outs on a play that will never show up in box score because he did not get over to cover with a runner on 3rd for infield hit. 

We've got to change our hitting approach and make pitcher work a lot harder. This has been problem all yr. At same time Sommer needs to be perfect as Friday guy and not have mental lapses and wiggle out in 5th.

 

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Being not patients pays off and we are tied again as everyone offered hard at the first couple pitches, but in between three easy outs, we got a first pitch dump single over first and a moonshot HR to LF to right of scoreboard by Ashley. That inning summed up our feast or famine mentality and its 3-3 after 5.

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Again a horrific manger decision that cost us the lead. I don't deal in retrospect but could not believe Mercer did this. Clinging to a one run lead he brings in Braden Scott who has been very mediocre this year. Got to use your best guys clinging to a lead and not doing that just cost us dearly. Scott removed after the one batter so clearly on short leash which is good but damage done.

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A long rain/lightning delay by the way still in place at same time. I knew from the beginning they should of moved today's game up to 3pm as I knew a line of storms was forming near Bloomington around 7. With rain all day tomorrow not sure if they finish this tomorrow evening and then play a full game and a game Sunday or what. 

Stay tuned?

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Well little did we know when Hopkins walked it off, it's a good thing he did, because not five min later, there was more lightning in the area and we would of had to play extra's tomorrow or Sunday .

This was probably our first true 50-50 game back and forth and we pulled it out. There were still three small problems that bothered me. One was our feast or famine tonight with pretty much a HR or an out. Illinois was patiently hitting the ball softly and successfully all over the yard for singles, while we were swinging for fences every at bat. We need to learn to be able to play small ball better like they did. The second problem was Sommer not covering the first base bag fast enough in the 5th which would of gotten IU out of inning. If he does and Illinois only gets two, we win 4-3 and don't need the Hopkins HR. Lastly, turning to Braden Scott who has been awful this year, was a horrible move by Mercer and he immediately gave up tying HR. In clutch one run situations, it needs to be Stahl (who came in right after and was good), Litwicki, Sharp or Bothwell (if he is not starting that weekend) who have all been really good. If we go straight to Stahl we also probably win 4-3 and don't need walk-off HR. Really we should of won 4-2 without those mental decisions, or even 4-3 if we only make one of those two mistakes that cost us runs.

What I liked though was several things. We won a 50-50 game which was good. We got to a Friday starter as well as I would hope. The Illini starter has been good, but not gone more than five innings, so we really started getting to him in fifth and sixth when his pitch count got higher which is all you can ask. Also, no fielding mistakes outside of that Sommer thing and no official errors which is a nice improvement. Sommer battled and while he could of been better in fifth, Illinois made it tough on him.

Overall though, exactly what I would expect from a Friday night game and we ultimately got the W. Not sure how rest of weekend plays out with rain most of Saturday. Not sure if they elect for an evening game after it stops tomorrow, or a doubleheader Sunday. Either way, lets hope this puts us in right frame of mind and we can get at least one more and hopefully two. We've got by far the better starting pitchers now, as Illinois' other starters and bullpen are horrible. Let's take advantage.       

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