Hoosiers recover from a sloppy start to dominate NAIA Huntington in Fort Wayne on Sunday.
By Carl James @jovian34 October 9th, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers 21, Huntington Foresters 6
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog
“I loved how we responded to how we started the game.”
-Head Coach Jeff Mercer
With double the number of fall ball exhibition games with outside competition now permitted by the NCAA, head coach Jeff Mercer took an opportunity to give his younger players the spolight and take the team to Parkview Field (High-A MiLB) in Fort Wayne to play in front of more than 4,000 people.
Mercer opened the game on the mound and in the field with hometown talent. Left-handed third year pitcher Brayton Thomas started on the mound and second year Landen Fry started at second base. After the game Mercer explained, “[Landen Fry] had a great summer in the Northwoods. Played really well, played every day, played 50 or 60 games. Then slid into second base, tore a ligament in his thumb. So he was just now released to play defensively. I think the world of Landen. He deserved to be celebrated and so I made a deal with Austin, our trainer, and begged if he could play defense in the top half so he could be announced in his home town and be celebrated the way that he should be.”
Thomas, a weekend rotation piece last season, technically got roughed up a bit giving up two earned runs on three hits, but two of those hits were routine fly balls lost in the sun by transfer left fielder Nate Eisfelder. Mercer said that they, “Lost a couple of balls in the sun, had some jitters, big crowd. I wanted our guys to be able to play through it and come out the back side of it.”
Come out of it they did. Eisfelder made up for it in the third inning with a monster 3-run bomb. The Hoosiers lead 6-3 at that point and then came the 4th inning. The first eight batters all got hits. The first seven scored, and the first nine all reached base. The highlight of that inning was back-to-back jacks by returning outfielders Cole Decker and Cal Gates.
At that point it was pretty clear that this was not a competitive game on the scoreboard, but the point of fall ball is to give the players a chance to play someone other than each other. “On the mound I wanted those young guys to work up which they did and I wanted our young position players have some length and go play.”
A couple of pitchers returning from injury how solid outings on Sunday. “I love the pitch ability of [RHP] Logan [Cotton]. In high school he was really, really pitch-able. His dad played at Indiana, was a really good player and a great guy. Logan had an injury last year and worked his way through it.”
Coach Mercer sees Cotton as, “a guy that can create weak contact, create some match-ups, maybe be a change-of-pace reliever as he grows in his career. I thought that he was really good. Managed the game, multiple pitches for a strike. I like the curveball.”
“Blane [Metz] as you know, was an elite high school prospect and had surgery in high school and was recovering last year. He’s still working his way back into the same power stuff he used to have. He can really spin it. Good change-up, good fastball properties. Great athlete. Maybe the best athlete in the program.”
The facility is a gem of a minor league ball park and 4000 people showed up to watch. “I wanted to come to Fort Wayne, it’s a huge Indiana stronghold. It’s a great community, they projected 4,000 people here so it was a huge crowd. I wanted us to have some length with our young guys, to be able to go out and play through it.”
The Hoosiers have a quick turnaround for a Fall Break match-up Friday night 6:30pm at another minor league ballpark, Four Winds Field with ACC In-state foe Notre Dame. I will have a live game blog from South Bend.