Rivera shoves, but Hoosiers come up just shy in driving in runs at Oregon
By Carl James @jovian34 March 14th, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers: 2, Oregon Ducks: 3
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
It was a classic pitcher’s duel on Friday in Eugene, Oregon. With early season Sunday starter Jackson Bergman sidelined for a second straight week, head coach Jeff Mercer and pitching coach Matt Myers adjusted the rotation, slotting grad transfer Reagan Rivera in as a Friday opener and pushing Tony Neubeck and Brayton Thomas each back a day on the weekend.
On only 4 days of rest, Rivera improved on his Sunday performance at the Bart by tossing 4 scoreless frames. With the 4-seam fastball working, Rivera kept the Duck bats at bay.
Offensively the Hoosiers were able to score off Duck ace Will Sanford in the first inning. Hogan Denny was ruled out on strikes for leaning his elbow towards a pitch that hit him in the leg. This early event proved costly as Brayden Ricketts hit a two-out double after that and scored on a pair of wild pitches. Sanford has exceptional stuff with a 96-mph 4-seam fastball with movement and a sharp 12-6 breaking ball. He does have occasional control issues and this is how the Hoosiers were able to jump on him early.
In the fourth inning the same formula lead to another Hoosier run. Jake Hanley reached via hit and reached third on a pair of wild pitches before being driven in by a Landen Fry two-out RBI single.
That would end up being all the offense IU hitters would produce, and it wasn’t enough as the Ducks plated a single run in each of the next three frames. Lefty Conner Linn looked decent in one inning of work, getting two contact outs after allowing a lead-off walk. Linn just couldn’t finish the inning clean, plunking a batter before allowing an RBI double.
With a lead in the sixth, Mercer and Meyers elected to go for it, deploying Gavin Seebold to hold the lead for 4-innings a win. Seebold got two quick outs, but the lead evaporated when a high and inside fastball (typically a good first pitch) was smoked for game tying solo homer off the bat of Maddox Maloney. Seebold allowed a lead of double to start the 7th and Oregon took the lead with a sacrifice bunt to setup a sacrifice fly.
All told Hoosier pitching limited Oregon to three runs on just five hits and four walks. The Hoosier offense was struck out 13 times, severely limiting scoring opportunities.
Oregon pitching is good and Will Sanford has some of the best stuff in the nation. Hoosier hitters were hoping to take advantage of Sanford’s wild streak and were very patient. To draw on a word Mercer has said a couple of times this season the hitters were looking passive, not just patient. Particularly when reliever Tanner Bradley entered with two out in the 7th, he was tossing an assortment of off-speed for strikes and most Hoosier hitters didn’t swing until they had two strikes.
The loss drops IU to 7-10 on the season and 1-3 in Big Ten play, currently 11th place in the 17-team league. The good news is that IU still has its top two starting pitchers up on an extra day of rest for the remaining two games of the series. The bad news is their best bullpen arm has been used. IU still has several bullpen options still available. Kaden Jacobi, Ivan Mastalski, Jackson Yarberry, Kellen English, and Jacob Vogel have all been idle for three days since they combined for a solid midweek vs Wright State on Tuesday. If Indiana could get 6 innings from Neubeck, they may only need two or three arms to finish the game, and if they could get 5+ from Thomas Sunday, they have whoever didn’t pitch Saturday plus Conner Linn back up for inning Sunday. If things go sideways on Saturday, Pete Haas can eat innings and save the better bullets for Sunday.
Going through the group, it shows that this much improved year over year pitching staff is getting deeper than we realized even missing a starting pitcher. The real issue is outside of a few midweek type outings the Hoosier offense just hasn’t been consistently producing runs. Coach Mercer has made a lot of changes is working to correct this lineup’s hitting woes.