Taylor hits for 11 total bases as the Hoosiers stay ahead of multiple Scarlet Knight comeback efforts before pulling away late
By Carl James @jovian34 April 27th, 2024
After Indiana and Rutgers combined for just 14 hits on Friday, both teams collected double digit hits Saturday, but left a lot of runners stranded. Indiana took a 5-1 lead in the second inning and fended off multiple attempts by Rutgers to come back.
Indiana Hoosiers 12, Rutgers Scarlet Knights 6:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score | Postgame Media
While the final margin was wide, the game was close until the Hoosiers scored 6 runs in the bottom of the 8th inning, After the game, head coach Jeff Mercer felt his team left a lot of opportunities on the table when Rutgers would change pitchers in the middle of an inning. “[Rutgers Head Coach] Steve Owens has won a lot of games, he’s a smart guy, he made those changes, and we didn’t adjust nearly fast enough.”
The best example of this was in the bottom of the fourth inning. Devin Taylor hit his second lead-off home run of the day, followed by a Josh Pyne double and singles off the bats of Nick Mitchell and Tyler Cerny. The Hoosiers plated two runs, and still had two on with nobody out, Owens turned to lefty reliever Joe Mazza. Joey Brenczewski loaded the bases with an expertly placed bunt single, but the next three batters all struck out and the Hoosiers left the base loaded. Even a contact out from the first two batters would likely have plated a run.
“You’ve got to be able to make an adjustment, we didn’t do that a couple of times today.” At least until the 8th inning, when up two with two runners on and one out, Owens made a mid-inning pitching change, and Jake Stadler hit an RBI single that snowballed into a 4-run inning that essentially put the game out of reach. “Jake’s been like that the entirety of his time. He’s probably our most dutiful RBI guy. He’s hit a bunch of balls hard recently, and then he came through for us like he has multiple times.
On the mound, graduate student Ty Bothwell was not as effective as he was last week, but his fastball velocity was good and he managed to keep Rutgers behind Indiana into the fifth inning, Bothwell hit Rutgers catcher Hugh Pinkney in the face with an 0-2 pitch to put two runners on with no outs. Mercer and pitching coach Dustin Glant elected to go to righty Drew Buhr at that point. Buhr allowed both inherited runners to score, but kept the Hoosiers in the lead. Buhr would go on to finish the game, not allowing any runs of his own.
After the game Buhr described what was working for him. “It was just getting ahead of hitters, attacking them and pounding the strike zone. We know that they are an aggressive team.” In 5.0 innings of work, Buhr allowed no runs on 4 hits, striking out 4 and walking none. Buhr was credited with the win.
Both teams put on quite a show defensively. Not just were there no errors, but the fans at Bart Kaufman Field were treated to a lot of great plays. After the game junior Nick Mitchell described the team defense, “It is something we take pride in. We work a lot in practice on defense, it is probably the biggest thing that we do.” Mitchell made a leaping catch while up against the right field fence in the top of the seventh inning. Tyler Cerny followed that up by leaping to catch a line drive single to end a 1-2-3 inning for Buhr.
Rutgers outfielders made multiple great catches, and the apparent ease of the long throws made by shortstop Josh Kuroda-Grauer seeming made anything hit in his vicinity an automatic out. In addition to his elite defense, Kuroda-Grauer went 2 for 5 at the plate driving in two runs. He is one of the best hitters in the country at .436. Indiana pitching contained him Friday, but he made his presence felt as the two hole hitter Saturday and was a big reason the Hoosiers couldn’t exhale until the four insurance runs came home in the eighth inning.
Indiana clinches their fourth straight Big Ten (B1G) series. They remain in fifth place in the B1G standings at 9-5, but now are just 2 games behind league leading Illinois. Rutgers falls to 3-11 in the league, and despite a solid RPI, they risk not qualifying for the B1G Tournament, which would essentially disqualify them from NCAA consideration. Most likely Rutgers will need to go 9-1 in their remaining B1G games to get into the conference tournament. The good news for Rutgers is that would likely make their RPI an easy at-large qualifier. 9-1 however is a difficult stretch,
Indiana on the other hand has an RPI problem. Indiana can likely only afford to lose 3 more games. With three series against teams 2, 3, and 4 in the B1G standings, finishing the sweep in the Sunday series finale is an important step for the Hoosiers. There will be a lot to play for on the B1G Network at 11am Sunday.