Butler pitching in second game held Hoosier hitters in check.
By Carl James @jovian34 March 30th, 2024
Butler was not phased by being run-ruled earlier in the day. The Bulldogs turned their attention to the second game and six Bulldog pitchers, despite walking 10 Hoosiers, avoided the big hit and capitalized when Hoosier pitchers and fielders made mistakes to split both the doubleheader and the series.
Indiana Hoosiers 5, Butler Bulldogs 8:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Julian Tonghini had a solid three-inning start for Indiana. Tonghini allowed 3 hits and 1 walk in 4 innings or work surrendering 1 earned run. Brandon Keyster pitched a scoreless frame. After the Hoosiers took a 4-1 lead, Ethan Phillips gave up two runs on three hits and wild pitch in the top of the fifth.
Drew Buhr pitched an effective 6th inning, but allowed a pair of base runners in the seventh. When Buhr’s fastball was being fouled off, Jeff Mercer went to close Brayden Risedorph. Risedorph struck out the batter he inherited, but a nice piece of hitting by Bulldog Kade Lewis plated two runs to tie the game.
Butler called on the same two arms who shut the Hoosiers down late on Thursday. Andrew Crumbley and Cole Graverson. These lefties finished Butler two wins with relentless barrage of breaking ball in the low to-mid 70’s Indiana hitters were waiting until two strikes to swing at off speed. While this lead to a lot of walks, Indiana did not get a big hit with runners in scoring position.
After the game, coach Mercer discussed how the Hoosier hitters prepared for facing these unusual pitches. “We backed up the machines this week. We tried to do our drill work from much further back and softer.” Mercer said, “In the first game when some of those guys were a little soft, not that soft, we did a pretty good job with it, taking singles in the middle of the field and just advancing the ball. We didn’t do a good enough job in the second game of that.”
Risedorph remained in to try keep the game tied. With two outs in the ninth a mistake pitch on a splitter in his second time against Lewis ended up being crushed over the right field fence. A gut punch of a shot that put the Bulldogs up three, the final margin.
In total Bulldog pitching allowed 11 free bases to the Hoosiers allowing just 5. The Bulldogs outhit Indiana 10-6 and were more effective in getting the big hits necessary to plate multiple runs.
The Hoosiers have a midweek game on Tuesday, hosting the Indiana State Sycamores at 6pm before traveling to College Park on Friday to take on the Maryland Terrapins in their next B1G conference series.