The Hoosiers fall 8-4 behind a trio of crucial errors and four unearned runs
By Zach Horwitz @HorwitzZach February 26th, 2025 – photos by Carl James
The gates opened at Bart Kaufman Field for the first time in 2025 but Indiana’s home opener was one they’d rather forget. Indiana forced itself to play from behind from the jump but a slew of self-inflicted wounds sealed their fate.
Indiana Hoosiers 4, Xavier Musketeers 8
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
“You feel like you played well, but you didn’t do enough to be able to win the game,” said head coach Jeff Mercer. He pointed to the defensive lapses when stating “the expectation is to execute routine plays, and we haven’t done that well enough so we’ll get that part rectified.” The breakdown occurred in the latter stages of the ballgame.
Jackson Yarberry toed the rubber for his first start in an Indiana uniform, in which he surrendered a pair of home runs to two-hole hitter Aedan Anderson and a power bat freshman in Landon Mensik. Indiana countered with an offensive surge, bringing the deficit within two as Jake Hanley extended his hitting streak to eight games with an RBI-double.
From there, both pitching staffs blanked the offensive opposition for consecutive frames until a ground ball ate up shortstop Cooper Malamazian, who was turned in the lineup card for his first start. Similar to the 8-6 extra innings victory for the Musketeers over the Hoosiers on Feb. 15, Xavier took advantage of the mishaps in Bloomington.
The Hoosiers offense combined its way to 11 hits, loudly emphasized by back-to-back jacks from the outfield bats of Devin Taylor and Korbyn Dickerson. It was the fifth consecutive game that Indiana amassed ten or more hits. Yet, the fifth inning heroics halted any offensive production from Indiana, finishing 2-for-9 with runners in scoring position, while the defense deteriorated.
Mercer’s middle infield pairing of Malamazian and Jasen Oliver fused for all three errors which turned costly. The trio of mistakes handed Xavier four unearned runs nestled between a tied ball game. The 13 errors on the season now places Indiana 16th in the Big Ten with a .955 fielding percentage.
The dreary, cold offseason months kept the Hoosiers infield group inside Mellencamp Pavilion rather than out on its turf, and it has paid dividends. Coach Mercer reflected to the mental aspect of the game:
“You have a bad winter and you’re inside a bunch. Then you go up to a dirt field [in Surprise, AZ], make a few errors, then you start thinking about it a little bit, and now, you’re concerned with it.”
The overlying positive from the outcome was that Mercer’s low-leverage arms competed against a potent Xavier batting order. A southpaw in specific reigned significant to Mercer, redshirt junior Grant Holderfield.
“Grant was a warrior. We didn’t help him today but I was thrilled with the way that he competed and executed pitches.”
The lefty was thrown into the fire, taking over in the 6th inning with the bases juiced. Holderfield stuck a 2-1 pitch resulting in a sacrifice fly and landed an offspeed pitch to get out of the traffic with a groundout. For a reliever with a near 9.00 era for his career, the Illinois native aided the Hoosiers not only today, but for this upcoming weekend.
Indiana, now sitting at 3-5 overall, heads to DeLand, FL for a four-game set with Mount St. Mary’s and the host, Stetson. The bulk of the bullpen and the stellar starting duo of Gavin Seebold and Cole Gilley will be fresh. Hoosiers begin the trip with a doubleheader commencing at 1 p.m. and 6:30 p.m.