Staff ace Foley is rocked early but settles in and gives the offense the space to come back.
By Carl James @jovian34 March 17th, 2024
For Hoosier fans it was, to quote Yogi Bera, “Deja vu all over again.” With two outs in the first inning a fastball A one-out double and then a two-out single score a run and then a fastball is taken out of the yard. What was different is this time it was to staff ace Connor Foley who was lighting the gun up in the mid-90’s and even touched 99. In the second inning, after Hoosier bats looked overmatched in a 1-2-3 inning, Foley gave up another two-run homer to Landon Godsey, the same guy who hit the double in the first.
Indiana Hoosiers 15, Belmont Bruins 10:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Indiana was down 5-0 and in real danger of dropping a fifth straight game. This time, the Hoosiers responded.
Head coach Jeff Mercer was very surprised at how well Belmont was hitting Foley. “When [Max Blessinger] hit a 98 mph fastball for a single to right field with a 2-strike count it was apparent that they were on time for even a great fastball.” An adjustment was made, and Foley changed his approach. After the game, catcher Brock Tibbitts said, “He’s always had electric stuff like that. They got to a few balls, and they did a good job of just getting to his fastball when he threw it. Just being able to land his off-speed pitches from there, being able to make an adjustment. He was very mature about it and just able to come back with his off-speed pitches. Start working backwards, throw a lot more breaking balls.”
Foley calmed things down with a scoreless third and fourth inning. The Hoosier bats took off scoring in every inning after the first, including 5 in the bottom of the seventh to take a commanding lead down the stretch. Shortstop Tyler Cerny said, “I thought we played better as a team today than we have all year. Especially at the plate. No one really gave away their at-bat. Everyone had a good AB, tried to put it in play.” Cerny went 2 for 4 on the day drawing two walks and blasting a home run. Eight of the nine Hoosier starters got hits and they reached base 22 times.
Brayden Risedorph was called in to get the last six outs, and he only need 6 batters to do it. He was electric in closing out the win and ending the losing streak. Indiana is now 10-9 on the season. Indiana and Belmont play a rubber match for the series today (Sunday) at 1pm.