7 Hoosier pitchers hold Aces to five runs on four hits, but offense struggles at key moments
By Carl James @jovian34 April 14th, 2024
Boyd’s World’s RPI Needs report shows that Indiana needs roughly a regular season record of 34-21 to get into consideration for an at-large bid for the NCAA Tournament. The Hoosiers came into Tuesday 20-16 overall and 4-4 in midweeks contests. With only 5 losses left to allow on the year, a midweek home game against an Evansville team in the middle of the pack of the Missouri Valley Conference seemed to be important to grab. This is especially the case with Big Ten (B1G) series still left to play with three of the conference leaders, two of those series on the road.
Indiana Hoosiers 4, Evansville Purple Aces 5:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score | Postgame Media with Jeff Mercer
Much of that 4-4 midweek record was due to early season pitching woes. Head Coach Jeff Mercer told the media, “We weren’t good enough on the mound. You have the injuries earlier, I’ve said it a million times, not to be an excuse maker, but it is what it is. Those guys hadn’t grown up, but they have now.”
On Tuesday the pitching staff had to labor through some wildness, but they managed to keep a veteran, powerful Purple Aces line up to just five runs on four hits. Seven different Indiana pitchers saw action. The final 4.1 innings Junior Ryan Kraft and trio of freshmen, Eli Shaw, Ryan Rushing, and Jacob Vogel kept the Aces hitless and scoreless.
“Today was squarely on the offense. It’s just in the middle inning when you’re given an opportunity, take it. We typically do, and that’s frustrating.” Mercer stated his players were not on fastball timing and were letting the pitches they are typically trained to hit go for called strikes.
Indiana did score 4 runs in the contest. Freshman DH Andrew Wiggins drove in a run on a 107 mph double to right field. Sophomore shortstop Tyler Cerny drove two runs in with a single in the fifth inning and junior right fielder Nick Mitchell drove in a run with a sacrifice fly in the 7th inning. Hoosier batters were retired in order, down just one run, in the eighth and ninth innings to end the contest with a loss.
The Hoosiers jump back into conference play with a 3-game series at Minnesota starting 7pm on Friday.