An early look at the 2025 Indiana Hoosiers infield following the first official practice
By Zach Horwitz @HorwitzZach January 28th, 2025
“We returned a lot of the position players and we brought in a lot of new pitchers. But, new is great, because they just want to come here and win,” said redshirt senior catcher Jake Stadler. “They’ve seen what we’ve done here the last two years. We’ve gone to regionals and our goal this year is to host (a regional) and go to a super regional.” That goal has become a common communication amongst Jeff Mercer’s 2025 squad.
Indiana’s experienced infield group must represent the backbone of the team’s success if those talks should come into fruition. It all starts with the Hoosiers’ backstop in Jake Stadler.
CATCHER
Entering his fifth season, that being his second at Indiana, Jake Stadler looks to captain an Indiana group that played its way into the NCAA Regionals with a 33-26-1 record, featuring 15 wins in conference play, just a year ago.
Stadler leads an inexperienced catching unit that showcases two freshmen and a sophomore behind him. TJ Schuyler saw action in 19 games last season, starting just two of those behind the dish. Brayden Ricketts, a 6 ‘2 freshman from Ontario, Canada, and Baseball America Preseason Big Ten Freshman of the Year, Hogan Denny, should assume spots behind him on the depth chart. Denny is thought to see time in the outfield or in a designated hitter role.
Evidently, Stadler should see the bulk of the catching duties for a second consecutive season. “I have played a lot of college baseball, so I’m just trying to be a leader for those guys and pave the way,” he mentioned. The left-handed swinging Stadler became the starting catcher following Brock Tibbitts’ injury early in the season. He then made his mark registering a .278 batting average over 151 at-bats. Along with the jersey change from No. 44 to No. 9, Stadler mentioned that he’d like to earn more extra-base hits in his final season.
THIRD BASE
Around the horn is a duo that head coach Jeff Mercer raves about. The third baseman position features one of Indiana’s all-time players in Josh Pyne and a soon-to-be breakout star in freshman Cooper Malamazian.
After leading Nazareth Academy (IL) to consecutive state titles, Cooper Malamazian likely turned down six-figures to head down to Bloomington for his college career. The Chicago native was selected in the 17th round of the 2024 MLB Draft by the Milwaukee Brewers after being highlighted as the 11th best prospect in Illinois.
Malamazian has shined throughout fall baseball with first-team reps as Josh Pyne sits out the preseason portion with an injury. In the opening media session, Mercer spoke about the necessities in earning playing time at a young age on his roster. “You have to be able to play defense at a high-enough level to be in there consistently… and then can they have that ability offensively to be competitive?” Mercer rambled on listing multiple names, with Cooper Malamazian at the top of the order.
Malamazian may have to wait his turn as Josh Pyne is expected to be a full participant by opening weekend. Pyne, now in his senior season with the Hoosiers, is the only player in program history with two of the top-10 all-time doubles seasons. He sits in fifth place in program history in doubles and 15th in school history in hits heading into the 2025 campaign.
Pyne owns 58 career doubles with IU, just five shy of Dustin DeMuth’s record, with an entire season still to play. In 2024, he started all 60 contests, hit .291 with 73 hits, in addition to his solid defensive efforts. Pyne was one of three Hoosiers to see action in every matchup, alongside now minor-leaguer Carter Mathison and returning shortstop Tyler Cerny.
MIDDLE INFIELD
Indiana’s shortstop position stems back two seasons, when Phillip Glasser was selected in the 10th round of the 2023 MLB Draft. The hole was then filled by rising sophomore Tyler Cerny who slid over from his 57 appearances at second base in his rookie season. At the end of last year, Jeff Mercer praised Cerny’s competitive nature and his improvements as the year progressed. The first portion of the season was a tough grasp for Tyler Cerny on the left side of the infield, as one would expect. He finished the season with a team-high 16 errors but only suffered three of those in the final 30 games. Cerny’s second-half of the season was stellar, and he also handled the bat incredibly well.
The Greenwood, IN infielder slashed his way to 24 doubles, which led the Big Ten, and also led the team in at-bats (257), doubles, and RBIs (60). Cerny earned Big Ten Player of the Week in April and went on to be selected Third-Team All Big Ten.
Tyler Cerny is poised for a breakout season in the top half of Indiana’s lineup along with a full offseason preparation as the starting shortstop.
On the other side of the second base bag, it will be Jasen Oliver who is flying under the radar in the Big Ten. After sitting the first few weekend series as a freshman, Jeff Mercer struck gold in finding his second baseman of the future. Oliver earned time in 48 games, spraying the baseball all over the yard en route to All Big Ten Freshman Team honors. After hitting .285 on the season, highlighted by a record-setting 8-RBI day at Minnesota, Oliver will handle second base for the 2025 season.
FIRST BASE
The first base position should be the only surprise amongst the Indiana faithful. The spot is seemingly being filled by 6’6 freshman Jake Hanley who was the primary first baseman during fall exhibitions. The big-frame lefty slugger was the second-ranked prospect in the state of Ohio coming out of high school. As mentioned earlier, Hanley was part of that list of Mercer’s to be physically ready to play an infield position at this level.
Joey Brenczewski was Indiana’s utilityman last season and he could continue to play that role. Brenczewski was the designated hitter in the batting order during fall scrimmages. Last season, the sophomore played in 50 games, with 29 of those coming at first base. The switch-hitting Brenczewski is a tough out, and he’ll have a spot in the batting order whether at first base or in another spot. He hit at an astounding .407 mark in conference play to finalize his freshman season.
Indiana’s infield group is in a good spot for success, with multiple returning players and veteran leadership involved. The Hoosiers continue preseason work as the regular season is near. Opening weekend is set for February 14th in Surprise, Arizona.