Northwestern stayed hot Sunday, taking out the Hoosiers 13-6 and claiming their ninth win in 11 games
by Garrod Creech • @creech_garrod • April 3rd, 2022
Nate Stahl threw first on a bullpen day for Indiana’s pitching staff. He cruised through the first inning and struck out the leadoff man in the top of the second, but three straight walks led to an early change. Stahl’s successor, Ryan Kraft got two quick outs, but then Northwestern’s JC Santini hit a grand slam to give the Wildcats an early 4-0 lead. Kraft looked sharp in the third, but three HBP and a walk in the fourth landed Northwestern another run and ended his outing.
High-leverage guy Braydon Tucker finished that inning before they could score again, but gave up four runs on five hits in the fifth and sixth. Grant Holderfield got all three outs in the sixth but allowed two more runs in the seventh. John Biagio-Modugno pitched a clean eighth and got two quick outs in the ninth, but a 4-pitch walk followed by a long home run added two more to Northwestern’s total.
The staff combined to hit four Northwestern batters, give up eight walks, 10 hits and 13 runs. Hoosier pitchers hit 11 Wildcats over the course of the weekend. Today further highlighted many Hoosier relievers’ continued trend of looking sharp initially but falling apart fast out of nowhere.
“I think it’s probably some, some fear. You know, you get out there and your stuff’s good, you’re locating your pitches, you have time to go in and think about it a bit, and then suddenly doubt starts creeping in your mind,” Mercer said of the quick breakdowns on the mound. “It’s not stuff though. The velocities aren’t down, the stuff’s not down. It’s the ability to continue to execute to the zones you’re trying to execute.”
Offensively, the team faced many of the same issues at the plate that plagued them throughout the weekend. They only struck out four times, but failed to cash in on opportunities and hit into the shift over and over again.
They did at least spread the scoring out some today though.
A Josh Pyne leadoff walk and Brock Tibbitts double in the second gave the Hoosiers one. Matthew Ellis’s 444-foot blast (his third-longest home run of the year, IU’s fourth) in the third gave them two. Three straight walks to lead off the top of the sixth seemed promising, but three straight groundouts only plated two more Indiana runs. Ellis singled and eventually scored in the seventh to get them to five, and Carter Mathison hit a monster longball of his own in the ninth, but the game was never really close after the second inning grand slam. Indiana batters were issued nine free bases in game three but left 11 runners stranded on the day (and 32 in the series).
“He’s obviously a talented young man. He’s worked really really hard to flatten his stroke out. The hard part for Matt is he gets pitched incredibly well. He doesn’t get a lot of pitches to hit and that’s difficult,” Mercer said of B1G homerun leader Ellis. “For him to stay true to his approach, to stay true to what he wants to do in the box, to his strengths, it’s a huge key. It’s foundational for him to continue being the player that he’s capable of being.”
IU falls to 11-15 on the season with the loss and to 1-2 in conference play. They’ll travel to Evansville Tuesday to take on last weekend’s opponent one more time. The Hoosiers took 2 of 3 games in their earlier series with the Purple Aces. The game will be visible on ESPN+ or fans can follow the iubase.com team for updates.