IU vs Nebraska and O$U: 5/21 - 5/24/21

[Aaron 4,293]

Houston doubles and its down to 4-3 with runners at 2nd and 3rd. I don't get our offense anymore.

[Aaron 4,293]

Povich finally fans Ashley to get out of it, but he is at 55 pitches through 2, which absolutely matters heading into tomorrow and Huskers having the doubleheader. Nebraska has great bullpen, but if you force their best arms tonight they won't have them tomorrow even if you lose which is huge. Even if you do little else tonight, the fact that you have forced Povich to throw so many pitches in a win.

[HoosierAloha 30,068]

Maryland also dropped a popup in foul territory in 9th that would of won it a long time ago. Once you do that, you do that you get what you have coming to you. Terps have blown this game multiple times earlier.

Definitely but that doesn’t excuse the absolute atrocious call.


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[Aaron 4,293]

Maryland gets lead back in the 11th.

[Aaron 4,293]

Sommer close to being pulled. How many times are we either going to exhaust our bullpen and give up a ton of runs on Friday before changing the rotation. He should pitch no better than 3rd starters and I might even use Bothwell as my 3 and put Sommer in bullpen. He has no pitching right now at all. Period. Much less on Friday. 

[Aaron 4,293]

Nebraska with a long HR and is back up 6-3. Sommer has to go. Hopefully for good on Friday. We can't keep doing this.

[Aaron 4,293]

Sommer out. Looks like he is having that nail issue again from last week. I hate to wish injury on anyone, but if this forces Sommer from the rotation in favor of Bothwell or Mudungo it may save our season and force something coaching has refused to do which is long overdue.

Tucker in.

[Aaron 4,293]

Maryland has made it 11-8 so hopefully if they hang on, we should be good rest of weekend. Have to win them all, but facing much weaker arms and mostly righties rest of time.

Even if we lose and force Nebraska to mow through their bullpen with doubleheader tomorrow we could be in terrific shape if they lose both, which is certainly possible with matchups, especially if they burn through bullpen.

[Aaron 4,293]

Also with Sommer if he were bad last two starts, I could blame the nail which certainly could be an issue, but he has been really bad for several weeks now. 

IU soccer had a bad midfield and Spencer Glass injury made it worse. Nail could of certainly made Sommer's issue worse, but he has been bad for many weeks now and can't keep pitching on Friday.

[Aaron 4,293]

Tucker really good. 

6-3 to Bottom 3. Key is to chase Povich early and force best relievers out there for Huskers, so that way win or lose we are in drivers seat rest of weekend with very much a chance.

[Aaron 4,293]

Maryland drops another pop up. Their defense will not let them win Big Ten. IU has struggled on D at times but not like this.

[Aaron 4,293]

Maryland wins despite doing everything they could to lose. That helps. Now lets force a long bullpen day and we are ahead of what I thought. I expected a dominant Povich and the fact we have gotten him for 3 runs and 65 pitches through three is more than I thought and puts us in better shape then we might of been.

Sommer exactly what I thought happened unfortunately. This is a very good coaching staff and very flexible usually in almost every way, but their unwillingness to replace Bierman with Sommer for Friday last few weeks, has been a major problem that is costing us somewhat. 

[Aaron 4,293]

RBI double by Nebraska makes it 7-3. Don't want to get to far behind or Huskers will go to lesser arms. Need to keep it close enough that we force their best arms tonight.

[Aaron 4,293]

7-3 after 3.5

[Aaron 4,293]

Houston singles to cut it to 7-4. Povich at nearly 85 pitches still in fourth. No complaints with offense.

[Aaron 4,293]

7-4 after 4. Povich at 83 pitches.

[Aaron 4,293]

How IU can work like this against Povich who might be best lefty in Big Ten, but look befuddled against those horrible Illinois guys Tuesday is beyond me? 

Macciocchi into pitch.

[Aaron 4,293]

Great inning from Macciocchi. Moving him to rotation has been a thing of beauty. Like I said Mercer is so flexible playing with people's positions and batting order to get best combination, yet stubbornly refuses to remove Sommer from the Friday role. 

Povich is out, so Nebraska needs 5 innings of relief which is terrific. They start with a righty who has been decent, not great. Similar to Tucker for us. 

7-4 halfway home.

[Aaron 4,293]

Thats was not a good inning. Other than the fact that we forced their best reliver to throw 15 pitches. Both Toetz and Richardson had good at bats working count, but ended up striking out in end. That was best part of order and lost battle. Not for a lack of trying, but need more production than that at this point. 

[Aaron 4,293]

7-4 after 5.5 as Macciocchi works another clean inning.