Neubeck twirls 4 scoreless but the pitcher’s duel turned into a blowout in the sixth inning with multiple mistakes that burned the Hoosiers in Friday’s opener
By Carl James @jovian34 February 14th, 2026
“It’s really hard when your chasing counts, chasing free bases.”
— Head Coach Jeff Mercer
Indiana Hoosiers 4, no. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels 9
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
CHAPEL HILL, NC – In front of a great opening day crowd, Missouri transfer senior Tony Neubeck twirled four innings of one-hit baseball. He was just shy of the 60-65 range Coach Mercer told the media Tuesday would be the opening week maximum for starting pitchers. In the bottom of the inning, Golden Spikes watchlist candidate Jason DeCaro managed the same feat through 5 innings.
In the bottom of the fifth UNC scored first, plating three on Coppin State graduate transfer Regan Rivera. The Hoosiers struck back on a two RBI-single off the second base bag off the bat of Cole Decker in the top of the sixth. The bottom of the sixth was awash in Hoosier mistakes, that snowballed into a 6-run frame that all but sealed the game for the Tar Heels.
Senior Coppin State transfer Regan Rivera took over in the fifth. He was not sharp, just missing the zone slightly. After the game, coach Mercer recounted, “We go behind in some counts. And so, and then you’re throwing a cutter, a two-count, they got the head out.” One of the struggles early in a season is not having good scounting reports. The IU coaches based the UNC hitting strategy on how they hit last year. These new transfer hitters were very different, hitting that cutter down the lines instead of using the big part of the field in the middle. Hoosier defenders were out of place and this helped UNC get a pair of extra base hits.
Mercer did not seem concerned about Rivera’s command issues long term. “Regan, this is his first time. Regan is going to be awesome for us.”
In a day that otherwise showed some excellent defensive work by Indiana, two critical errors happened in the sixth inning that, along with Rivera mostly pitching from behind, helped UNC plate 6 runs in the frame. Cooper Malamazian tried to backhand a ground ball and lifted his glove to allow a lead-off baserunner. Later in the inning, Cole Decker in left field completely lost a routine shallow fly ball in the twilight that plated two Tar Heels.
There were several things that Coach Mercer was happy about in the home opener. On top of Neubeck’s great start, Point Loma transfer grad student Michael Sarhatt followed up Rivera, finishing the game with 2.2 innings pitched, also allowing only one hit. “I thought he did a really good job. He kind of outperformed what he’s been doing the last couple of weeks.”
At Grand Park last fall, coach Mercer made a point of saying he was working with Jake Hanley on making throws to second base for double plays. No scenario happened in the fall where he could use that new skill. “Jake had a great play. And he said, I kind of wondered how many times I would ever use such a play, because we practiced it all the time. And he said, then I use it on the very first ball I touched the year.”
More defensive gems included TJ Schuyler turning what should have been a wild pitch into a caught stealing. “the block and recover, we installed a little bit of a different throwing program, but catcher throwing series, trying to replicate more of those situations.” Hogan Denny and Aident Stewart also combined for a relay play that held a runner on third with a decently deep fly ball to right field.
The series will be decided at noon Saturday with a doubleheader to get ahead of rain coming to Chapel Hill on Sunday.