IU Baseball @ Clemson 2/18 - 2/21

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

Let's play ball.  Hoosiers open the season with a 3-game trip to Clemson U.  Friday scheduled at 4:00; Sat. at 3:00 and Sun. 1:00.  Weather should cooperate for Friday and Saturday games; Sunday might have some rain; temps around 60 degrees.  Lots of new faces on the roster.  Be an interesting season.  Modugno gets the first start of the season.

Live Stats

 

 

[Aaron 4,293]

Games are being streamed on ACC Network Extra which is available for free with any cable subscription (including online cable like youtubetv etc.) to ESPN by signing in with your account credentials. It cannot be accessed without a cable subscription of some kind.

Here is the link to each game and all times Eastern:

Friday 4 pm: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=f8fcbdba-bce5-42f7-879d-3a77abf24e5e

Saturday 3 pm: https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=1bc4e409-5c27-41e5-8f57-778667f7fae8

Sunday 1pm:  https://www.espn.com/watch/player?id=7f51db3b-bb42-4f48-b0af-4f8ee886374e

Also here is radio information for Clemson for those without cable that includes an online stream:

https://clemsontigers.com/radio-affiliates/

Not sure yet if Griffin Epstein is traveling this weekend for an IU radio broadcast but will update when/if IU does.

Always a good idea to check the opposing teams website for tv/streaming/radio info. Especially when IU on road.

[Aaron 4,293]

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

Let's play ball.  Hoosiers open the season with a 3-game trip to Clemson U.  Friday scheduled at 4:00; Sat. at 3:00 and Sun. 1:00.  Weather should cooperate for Friday and Saturday games; Sunday might have some rain; temps around 60 degrees.  Lots of new faces on the roster.  Be an interesting season.  Modugno gets the first start of the season.

Live Stats

 

 

What concerns me is right now Jack Perkins is the number two starter for Saturday. This is a guy who started at Louisville part time last year and was awful even against the weaker competition. Hopefully he has improved but if he is second best starter in his current form it's a major ouch. 

Mudungo I think can be a terrific lead guy on staff, but if Perkins is your second best it may be a rough year for starters and he is projected Saturday. Hopefully he has gotten better. I might go Bothwell and Tucker as other starters but a lot of unknowns outside Mudungo for staff. Bullpen is going to be strong.

Offense is unknown:

1. Tyler Doans who transferred in was an awesome contact hitter at West Virginia for three years. Last year he really struggled.  If he can restore what he did the first three years for Mountaineers you have a solid contact hitter at the top of your lineup.

2. Phillip Glasser was excellent at Youngstown State as a .300+ hitter. If he can carry that over to higher level competition in Big Ten you have another good contact hitter.

3. Colopy, Fougerousse and Vecrumba are back from last year and need to take a step forward after decent seasons

4. Matthew Ellis the catcher who transferred from JUCO was a hugely good power hitter at that level and if he can bring that to IU that is a guy who can hit 10 HR's+ with a high average

5. Peter Serruto is also a catcher who transferred from Rutgers. He was not a good hitter but is a good defensive catcher with Big Ten starting experience.

6. Other roles are unknown and will be filled by guys who played limited roles or are freshmen.

If these questions on offense are answered positively Hoosiers should be fine. If the answers are not good offense will struggle.        

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

Radio Play By Play from Griffin Epstein this weekend.

https://iuhoosiers.com/watch/?Live=2879&type=Live

[IU_FanClub 1,679]

Never been that in to college baseball but would like to get into it this year. Luckily able to watch today's game but worried I won't be able to watch much due to not having BTN+

[Aaron 4,293]

If this is what the new team is going to do we have major issues.

Top of 1st team was overpowered by Clemson pitcher easily.

However, no idea what has happened to Mudungo and he is very wild and when he does get it over plate he is getting shelled. You are supposed to develop a player like him into a Friday Starter much like you did Behrman in same role previously and instead he looks much worse.

The offense can be fixed and I am not going to panic over one inning, but if Mudungo is going to pitch like this I have lot of questions about our new pitching coach. This is a guy who is projected as a high pick next year and if he has gotten worse that is on the staff and I have questions about who Mercer is hiring. A guy like Mudungo should get better after so much promise. Not lose command of his stuff. Parker constantly developed guys to keep getting better and if Glant is going to make the young stars worse he can go away.

3-0 Clemson after 1.

Hopefully this team can work out early bugs, but first inning is a huge problem (especially Mudungo) if we have any indications.   

[Aaron 4,293]

And now Mudungo gives up a solo HR to their number nine hitter. Either his pitches are being teed up or wild.

I have major questions about how Mudungo has gotten so much worse and its something the staff better figure out. His stuff just does not look as strong out of his arm and that is on Glant. He has the talent and the arsenal to be good and instead he is worse. Better get this figured out fast for what should be far and away your best pitcher.

[Aaron 4,293]

I have no idea how IU is going to be able to field a respectable starting pitching staff this year. Mudungo had zero command and its now 6-0 in 4th with bases loaded.

I like the arms in the pen but they all are short relief. If Mudungo is going to pitch like this we have issues. 3+ innings zero command of his pitches and six runs. Tomorrow's starter is Jack Perkins who was worse than Mudungo was today at Louisville last year. I have no idea how you can expect him to get better if your best pitcher has gotten worse this year. Mercer doesn't even feel comfortable naming someone for Sunday yet.

I think you can get offense going at some point and short relief guys are solid, but if you can't put a starting staff together there is big issues. IU lost its entire starting staff after 2019 but guys behind developed into quality starters for 2020 and 2021. If Glant can't develop the guys behind the 2021 starters like Parker did Mercer just screwed the program over with this hire.

How Mudungo goes from solid pitcher in limited role and completely in control to a guy with no command is unacceptable for everyone involved. Bierman had this role three years ago Mudungo had last year and developed into a stud starter from the get go in 2020. Mudungo has gotten worse.

Sharp came in and cleaned it up beautifully. Like I said I have zero issues or questions with our short relief guys and Sharp is one of them. However, I would love to know who IU can throw for multiple innings as a starter who can be good if this is how Mudungo looks. Command issues will be a problem against anyone. Regardless how good Clemson is.  

[Aaron 4,293]

Reese Sharp was absolutely excellent for three innings with seven strikeouts and was in complete control. Than in his fourth inning he got tired out and gave up a couple runs. A new guy Ryan Craft came in and cleaned it up nicely with three more strikeouts. 

Sharp is exhibit A of how many terrific guys we have for 1-3 innings of short relief but if they go longer they run out of gas. 

I repeat what is the plan for starting pitching and guys who can eat innings? We have the bullpen guys for shorter relief. If this is not answered team will really struggle regardless even if offense gets it going and bullpen is strong which I think is very likely.

8-0 after 7.

[Aaron 4,293]

IU falls 9-0. I have questions about the starting pitching but don't want to overreact to first game 

[TheWatShot 14,010]

Feels like this will be a regression year. We lost a lot more talent than we brought in. 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

It's just the bottom of the 2nd but the Hoosiers off to a good start today with a 4-0 lead.  A pair of solo HRs in the 1st by Tyler Doanes and Matt Ellis.  In the 2nd we got back-to-back doubles by Carter Mathison and Brock Tibbitts.   Doanes then singled in Tibbitts for our fourth run.  A walk to Phillip Glasser and Clemson made a pitching change and ended our inning with a ground out.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

After the third, Hoosiers lead 4-1.  Perkins had a solid first 2 innings and then struggled in the 3rd.  Hit the leadoff batter then balked him to 2nd and he scored on a rbi double.  A walk put runners on 1st and 2nd with 2 outs but Perkins got out of the inning with no further damage and stayed on the mound to start the 4th.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

 Tied at 4 after 4.     

Perkins gets 2 outs in the 4th then walks a batter, gives up a hit and with runners on 2nd and 3rd, he's replaced by Ty Bothwell who promptly gives up a single scoring 2 Clemson runs. Bothwell wild pitches the runner to 2nd; gives up another single and it's a 4-4 ballgame.  Walks the next batter to put runners on 1st and 2nd but gets a strikeout to end the inning.

Perkins faced 18 batters throwing 82 pitches.  He struck out 8, walked 2, hit a batter, balked and threw 2 wild pitches.  

 

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

6-4 Clemson leads after 5 innings.

Bothwell totally ineffective in the 5th.  Hit a batter, walked 2 and gave up 3 hits leading to 2 more Clemson runs before he was relieved by Bradley Brehmer who got us out of the inning but not before he too hit a batter  --  our 3rd of the day.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

Brehmer as ineffective in the 6th as Bothwell was in the 5th.  He hit 3 batters bringing our total to 5 on the day, walked 3, gave up a hit and allowed 3 more  runs.  He's pulled for Joe Moran with the bases loaded and just 1 out.  Moran walks the first batter he faces and it's 10-4.  He then walks the second batter he faces and it's 11-4.  Still 1 out and bases loaded.  An infield single makes it 12-4 and I'm outta here.  Our bullpen today was more like bullsheet.

[Aaron 4,293]

Team still has yet to answer if they actually have any pitchers who can throw a few innings effectively. Once again Jack Perkins was good for a couple innings than fell apart. We have good arms mostly, but until team shows it can find pitchers who can throw 5-6 innings without wearing out this team will not go anywhere. 

Offense was better today and I expect that to continue to improve. However, until we can find pitchers who can eat innings we are in big trouble.

[Class of '66 Old Fart 84,775]

Try to salvage a game today before heading back to Bloomington.  Nathan Stahl gets the start.

[Aaron 4,293]

Once again Stahl was excellent out of the pen last year in short relief. The big question though is can he be stretched out and throw 5-6 quality innings rather than 2-3 and running out of gas as the other good bullpen arms. This is the number one question team needs to answer and solve to be a decent team.

I like our transfers Glasser, Doanes, and Ellis a lot and think the offense will be fine, but starting pitching is an issue that has to be solved.

Glasser gets a HR for a 1-0 lead as Stahl makes mound. 

[Aaron 4,293]

Not the best inning for Stahl but got out of it with just one run. Clemson just missed a 3-run HR with two outs and its 1-1 after 1.