Kraft and Gilley dominate on the mound. Taylor, Dickerson, and Cerny homer to seal the win.
By Carl James @jovian34 March 22nd, 2025
“You get two strikes, you put them away. Just stay on the attack”
— Senior LHP Ryan Kraft (after the Evansville game Tuesday)
Indiana Hoosiers 5, UCLA Bruins 1
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Devin Taylor set the tone for the Hoosiers in the top of the first inning. After Andrew Wiggins reached first on a rare throwing error by a UCLA defense with a .984 fielding percentage, Taylor made the Bruins pay with a rocket shot over the yellow line on the batter’s eye in center field at Jackie Robinson Stadium in Los Angeles. Not a single out had been recorded, but the Hoosiers start the game with a 2-run advantage.
While I would not have predicted it at the time, that was the winning RBI of the game with 54 outs still to play. Senior left-handed pitcher Ryan Kraft came into the season with high hopes following a summer in Northwoods League where he was named league pitcher of the year and lead his team to a championship. That initially did not seem to translate into his 2025 campaign for the Hoosiers. Kraft struggled to the point he was relegated to pitching in the late innings of blow-outs. Over the last few weeks, that first team All-B1G Ryan Kraft we remember from 2023 has gradually emerged. On the mound in Los Angeles, he was back to his elite form.
Mostly abandoning the looping curveball, Kraft was firm with a cross-fire fastball located on the black to both sides of the plate paired with a very effective change-up. Unlike the curveball, the change-up doesn’t have quite the obvious loop and spin. Batters can’t just take the pitch or recognize up in the zone and hammer it. But with a bit of arm-side run and sink, Bruin bats just didn’t square it up well leading to a lot of weak contact. Despite pitching two innings on Tuesday, Kraft was able to toss 4.1 innings of scoreless baseball with just 75 pitches.
Louisville transfer Korbyn Dickerson just refuses to let Devin Taylor catch him for the team home run lead. His solo shot in the third was almost in the same spot as Taylor’s too. With the solo blast, Dickerson not only remains Indiana’s leader, he’s tied with Maryland’s Alex Calarco and Oregon’s Mason Neville for the Big Ten lead in homers. All three have 11 long balls on the season.
In the middle innings of the game, Indiana’s two middle infielders each had an error. In the fourth junior shortstop Tyler Cerny made a great stop but his throw from the ground drew sophomore second baseman Jasen Oliver off the bag allowing the lead runner to get into scoring position. Kraft escaped that jam without damage. In the fifth Oliver booted a tailor-made double play ball that would have allowed Kraft to complete 5 full innings.
With runners on the corners and no outs, the pitching comes through. Kraft strikes out the 9-hole hitter. With the top of the order up for the third time in the game, pitch coach Dustin Glant called on Cole Gilley. Gilley uses a changeup to get another strikeout, and then gets the final out to strand both runners.
Cerny and Jolly’s errors did not hurt the Hoosiers, and both infielders contributed to the Hoosier win. In the top of the fourth, Cerny pulled a two-run homer to extend the Hoosier lead to five runs. Oliver almost matched him, but his ball bounces of the fence hard for a triple. With Gilley trying to go the rest of the way in the bottom of the seventh, Cerny and Jolly executed a tough 6-4-3 double play to save Gilley’s pitch-count and get the Hoosiers off the field.
Cole Gilley was exceptional. He only needed 67 pitches to cover 4.2 innings earning the win. He struck out 6 Bruins, allowed no walks, and just two hits. One of those was a solo home run, the only score the Bruins managed all day.
The victory puts the Hoosiers in the 4th place in the B1G standings (after tiebreakers) at 5-2 in the league and improved the RPI 30 ranks in one day, for 138th place to 108th. It was the Hoosiers sixth straight win. Indiana will attempt to clinch the road series today at 5pm Eastern. Graduate ace righty Ben Grable will be on the mound for the Hoosiers. Both teams have a true starter going today and have plenty of weapons available out of the bullpens.