The Foley/Bothwell Saturday combo has been dominant in the first two weeks while every starter got a hit
By Carl James @jovian34 February 25th, 2024
photo of Baylor Ballpark by Mike Foley (used with permission)
Starting pitcher, sophomore Connor Foley was almost unhittable, and despite being just a tad wild (40 of his 93 pitches were balls and he walked four) he was efficient enough to get through six complete shutout innings and earn the win. Foley said after the qame that, “Coach [Dustin] Glant always talks about managing the game and not letting one walk snowball into more. You really got to bare down in those moments and take control of the game. You’re going after the hitters. They don’t have the ball in their hands. It’s yours.” Foley struck out seven batters in his six innings of work.
By the seventh inning stretch, the Hoosiers had a 6-1 lead and the ball was handed to graduate student Ty Bothwell who pounded the zone to earn a 9-out save. Bothwell did give up 3 hits and an earned run, but he didn’t walk anyone and threw 41 of his 56 pitches for strikes. Both Foley and Bothwell relied on the defense behind them to secure outs. Foley said, “It’s so much easier to pitch when you have trust in the guys behind you. It’s really easy to do my job when you have faith in the defense on the field.” The Hoosiers committed no errors on the day.
The Hoosiers offensively did what was needed to dominate the game, scoring at least a run in 5 different innings. At no point did the game feel in doubt, but the Hoosiers were not very efficient with the bat. Despite every starter getting a hit and the team getting on base 17 times, they only scored six runs. Baylor pitching and defense stranded 11 Hoosiers. Baylor has been using lefty specialists to get the top of the Hoosier order, often allowing Josh Pyne to get a hit in the hopes of taking care of Carter Mathison and Devin Taylor before going back to a righty to face Brock Tibbitts and Tyler Cerny. Freshman Cal Sefcik also got his first college hit in the game driving in a run.
Taylor was on base three times via two walks and his first home run of the season. The blast went out of the park and into the water beyond right field. Taylor, named a Golden Spikes candidate, is leading the Hoosiers year to date with a .542 batting average and an eye-popping 1.342 OPS despite only the one home run. Morgan Colopy is now pacing the Hoosiers in the long ball department hitting his third homer of the season on Saturday. Three of Colopy’s five hits on the season have left yard driving his OPS to a solid .853 on the season.
The 23rd-ranked Hoosiers, now 5-1 on the year, will attempt a (minimum 3-game) true non-conference road sweep for the first time since 2007 at 2pm ET Sunday.