Indiana managed to keep no. 2 LSU from turning lots of baserunners into runs until the Tigers exploded for 9 in the 8th inning
By Carl James @jovian34 February 20th, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers 7, no. 2 LSU Tigers 14
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
There are two perspectives on Friday’s Hoosier Baseball loss to no. 2 LSU. The first is that the Hoosiers battled and had a lead going into the 8th inning with a fresh, trusted reliever on the mound to close things out. The second is that LSU had significantly more baserunners than Indiana all night, truly outplayed the Hoosiers, and the 8th inning was where water found its level and the clearly better team went on to win in dominant fashion. Both are valid. LSU was clearly the superior team on Friday, but Indiana was so close to finding a way to beat that jugernaut.
The distinction that just can’t be ignored is that LSU had 10 more hits than Indiana and also 10 more walks. That is 20 more baserunners. And LSU was reaching base significantly more than IU even when the Hoosiers took a 1-run lead into the 8th inning.
Coach Mercer often talks about getting to the 7th inning with a 1 or 2 run game and finding a way to win. Indiana was there on Friday and gave the ball to a fresh Jackson Yarberry. Yarberry looked decent against the first three batters. He was keeping his pitches low in the zone and getting to two-strike counts. Derek Curiel, the LSU lead-off man, got a solid hit off a decent pitch. Yarberry got LSU’s top hitter Jake Brown to fly out. The 3-hole hitter Mason Braun made weak contact which would have been an easy out if the defense was playing him straight instead of employing an extreme shift.
To be fair to the coaches, catcher Hogan flashed a target on the outside part of the plate. Yarberry’s pitch ran in and jammed Braun on the handle of the bat. Contact on that type of pitch may have been hit in Moore’s direction on the left side, or more likely fouled off. Perhaps a jam-shot is just a rare enough instances that it goes to simply bad luck. Indiana had some very good luck earlier in the game when what should have been a bases-clearing double was stopped by the first base bag and became an easy out.
Then walks up 295 lb first baseman Zach Yorke, the clean-up hitter. Yarberry went from being ultra competitive against batters 1-3 to not competitive at all in the next three pitches. The first two were almost in the dirt and easy takes for Yorke. Unlike in the prior 2-0 count, Denny flashes a target in the upper part of the zone, and Yarberry complies. Yorke seemingly sitting on it, turns on the pitch for what would be ruled a three-run home run.
Now down two runs with the good chance to win past, IU turns to senior Pete Haas seemingly to throw strikes and hopefully save pitching for the remainder of the weekend. Haas is very ineffective, walking three and giving up two hits without recording an out. Indiana ends up using three more pitchers to get the last 5 outs, with Jacob Vogel needing just five pitches to get the last two outs.
Hogan Denny continues to pace the Hoosier hitters with two hits and two runs batted in. Landen Fry in his first start also got two hits, joined by Cole Decker who has been struggling with the bat. During this 1-4 stretch, Brayden Ricketts and Jake Hanley have been hitting in the meat of the order and have not been producing at a high level.
Indiana continues the Live Like Lou event tomorrow (Saturday) at 4pm against Big 12 program UCF who went to extra innings against Notre Dame on Friday.