One disaster of an inning leads to then-no. 20 Indiana getting run ruled for the second time in three days
By Carl James @jovian34 March 4th, 2024
Indiana dropped the finale of the Frisco classic to Arizona by a score of 12-1. The game was final after seven innings on account of a pre-agreed to 10-run rule. For the fourth straight game, the Hoosier bats failed to score runs early and like on Friday, an inning that could have been escaped with solid execution snowballed into a crooked run total that put the Hoosiers in a hole that they just couldn’t climb out of.
Arizona Wildcats 12, Indiana Hoosiers 1:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Ethan Phillips was cruising as the Hoosier starter with two perfect innings. In the top of the third a walk and a double plated a run. Phillips got the 9-hole hitter to fly out, but was then removed for Grant Holderfield. After the game head coach Jeff Mercer said, “Yeah, they hit a couple hundred points worse versus lefties and struggled against the slider. We thought we had a pretty good matchup. Ethan [Phillips] has struggled to go through the order the second time. We had to go a little earlier than expected to Holderfield. He was good last week against Baylor, and he just didn’t go as according to plan.” Holderfield needed only six pitches to end the inning with two quick contact outs.
With the game tied at 1, the top of the fourth did not go as planned. Holderfield was really struggling to command his fastball, missing the plate by a large distance on several pitches. Holderfield loaded the bases and gave up a hard hit ball to Josh Pyne who was playing in line with the third base bag. If Pyne had been deeper, one could have projected Pyne and Burckel likely turning a 5-4-3 double pay to end the inning with no damage. Instead the ball got into right field for a 2-RBI single.
Three walks and three singles equated to 4 runs scored and Holderfield was removed with two outs in favor of Boston College transfer Julian Tonghini. Tonghini lost control of a pitch to Garen Caufield and hit him in the face. Caufield was removed from the game as precaution. Tonghini gave up three singles, mostly ground balls through holes and a double ending with the Wildcats up 11-1. Except for the hit-by-pitch, Tonghini seemed to be locating well. Arizona hitters were just good at making contact on his well placed off-speed and finding holes in the infield.
Tyler Cerny was the only Hoosier batter to get two hits on the day. Morgan Colopy drove in the only run with second inning single. The Hoosiers only struck out three times, but one of those was with a runner on third and only one out in the first inning.
In reviewing the weekend as whole with two run-rule losses sandwiching a ranked win Mercer reflected, “It’s early and you’re traveling and playing. A year ago, we went down to East Carolina and had a similar result. It’s the end of a long trip. You’re still trying to figure out where guys’ roles fit and who fits where. Sometimes you just get beat. I think they’ve lost five games to really good teams by seven runs. You knew you had a good team and they’re not just going to not play or not show up. We were kind of in the way to today.”
Indiana fell to 7-4 on the season and dropped out of the D1Baseball top-25. The Hoosiers play the next four at home, starting with a Tuesday 4pm first pitch against Northern Kentucky at Bart Kaufman Field.