Indiana strands the bases loaded three times and commits four costly errors on the day, losing to Xavier in extra innings.
By Carl James @jovian34 February 16th, 2025
The Hoosiers felt they were on the verge of escaping certain defeat. The prior stretch had seen sophomore Jasen Oliver blast a three-run homer to tie the game at six in the bottom of the ninth. Lefty senior Ryan Kraft was in and set down his first two batters on 4-pitch strikeouts. Then the wheels came off…
Indiana Hoosiers 6, Xavier Musketeers 8
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Junior shortstop Tyler Cerny stopped a hard hit grounder and made what after the fact was an uneccesary throw for an error that put that runner in scoring position. Now by the progression of the game this wouldn’t matter because of three more straight hits surrendered by Kraft. The two run-producing hits were weak contact: a Texas Leaguer to center and a perfectly placed swinging bunt. Kraft finished the inning with his third strikeout, but the damage was done.
To reinforce the story, the Hoosiers managed to load the bases with two-outs in the ninth and get nothing when Oliver flied out to end the game. In total, the Hoosiers left the bases juiced three times and came away with nothing.
Xavier scored half of their runs in a top of the sixth inning that was a case study in poor execution by the Hoosiers. Gilley was out for his sixth inning of work and enduces a slow dribbling ground ball that senior Josh Pyne charges and bounces for an error that gets the lead-off runner to second base. After a lazy fly, Gilley gives up a ground rule double and is immediately removed from the game.
Ben Grable makes his debut as Hoosier, after a year and a half in the program recovering from Tommy John surgery. Touted by the coaches as a “Player To Watch”, Grable literally got off on the wrong foot, slipping off the mound in his first pitch attempt, which is ruled a balk and puts the tying run 90 feet away with only one out. Grable then goes into hunting for strikeouts mode, walking the bases loaded. He does gets his strikeout and is almost out of the inning with the 2-1 lead preserved, then misses badly on a wild pitch. That plates the tying run. Senior catcher Jake Stadler hurries the throw for another error, which had no chance of getting the runner, and Grable can’t corral it, allowing the go ahead run to score as well.
What did we learn?
As far as the remainder of the season goes, coach Jeff Mercer has to be pretty pleased with what he has on the mound. Hoosier pitching struck out an eye-popping 21 Musketeers on the day. After two days the 1-2 punch of Seebold and Gilley appears to be a legit Division I starting duo. Better than advertised.
It was a huge relief to see Oliver break through with that three-run blast in the 9th. It reminded the team of what they are capable of offensively.
Conversly, the fear of past years that pitching has to be this good and get strikeouts because the defense can’t back it up is rearing its head. A majority of the hits in the first two games have been weak contact. With five errors (all by upperclassmen) and fielders seemingly shifted into poor spots, Indiana really struggled to get key outs on batted balls in play.
Perhaps the defensive shifting improves dramatically as more video gets collected on upcoming opponents. Three of the errors were arguably on throws that shouldn’t have even been made. Losing to a rebuilding UNLV team on Friday maybe had the team pressing a bit too hard on Saturday. Sunday is a game they are not expected to win. Perhaps they can relax, have fun, and play a game for 9 innings against an elite program and see what happens.
That game against no. 7 Oregon State comences at 2pm ET today.