Indiana goes 2-1 on the weekend with a marquee win over no. 18 Coastal Carolina, Foley named B1G Pitcher of the Week
By Carl James @jovian34 February 20th, 2024
Going into the 2024 season the narrative on the Hoosiers was this was one of the best offenses in the nation, and there was unproven talent on the mound. What the opening weekend did was affirm that the Hoosiers can hit and more importantly show that the Hoosiers can both pitch and play elite level defense.
In his pre-season interview with Talking Hoosier Baseball, pitching coach Dustin Glant stated that his pitching staff had a goal of reducing walks by 100 year over year. In addition to holding the opponents to 8 total earned runs on the weekend, they only walked 9 and plunked 4, roughly 4 free bases per game.
Live Blogs:
- Friday: no 12 Duke 6, Indiana 3 – recap
- Saturday: Indiana 7, no. 18 Coastal Carolina 2 – recap
- Sunday: Indiana 9, George Mason 3
The Hoosiers had a series of great pitching performances. The weekend “rotation” of Brayden Risedorph (1ER in 4.2 IP), Connor Foley (0ER in 4 IP), and Ethan Phillips (2ER in 3.2 IP) got the Hoosiers off to a steady start. Foley’s start against Coastal Carolina earned him Big Ten Player of the Week honors.
With one exception on Friday the Hoosiers had solid outings from the relief corps. The standouts were Ty Bothwell, who earned the win on Saturday (0ER in 5IP) and Julian Tonghini who earned the save on Sunday (0ER in 3IP).
When we spoke to Tonghini after Sunday’s game he said again and again how the focus of this pitching staff is on “attacking the hitters.” The observation is that they are getting into fewer 3-ball counts and being willing to throw any pitch in their assortment in any count.
The position player group had a tall task facing a potential All-American in Duke’s Jonathan Stantucci on Friday and another solid starter in Alexander Meckley for Coastal Carolina on Saturday. Indiana managed 3 hits and 3 walks against Meckley, and 4 hits against Stantucci. Not ideal, but not terrible. The Hoosiers did some damage to the bullpens with Carter Mathison and AJ Sheppard belting two homers each. Indiana collected 31 total hits on the weekend. AJ Sheppard’s debut weekend was shortened by a left arm injury in a collision when he was playing first base on Friday. Sheppard was at the hospital getting evaluated when we spoke to head coach Jeff Mercer on Sunday. We will try to find out more today.
With expected outfield starter Nick Mitchell sidelined with an injury, Carter Mathison hit lead off and had a great weekend. Mercer really likes what he has seen from the lineup. Time will tell, when Mitchell returns, if Mercer sticks to this lineup construction.
Freshman prospect Andrew Wiggins hit a double and walked in his only plate appearances Sunday. Redshirt Freshman Joey Brenczewski is potentially going to see more action at first base as well if Sheppard’s injury keeps him out of play for an extended period.
The strategy for catching is forming to have Purdue transfer Jake Staddler catch on the days the Hoosiers really need to limit runs (Fridays and Saturdays) in order to have Brock Tibbitts playing first base where he is clearly a plus defender. On Sunday and in midweeks Tibbitts will return to his natural catching position and players like Brenczewski, Sheppard (if healthy), and Staddler who are still learning the position will take the reins at first base.
Indiana hosts Miami (Ohio) today at 4pm at Bart Kaufman Field.