Bothwell shoves for 8 innings, bats wake up in the middle, Hoosiers dominate 11-2
By Carl James @jovian34 March 30th, 2024
In the final non-conference series, Indiana has a final opportunity to tune-up the issues that have plagued the team in March in hopes to right the ship in the last 7 weeks of Big Ten (B1G) play. Thursday night in Indianapolis showed a decent staff day on the mound, but the offense could not produce. Return to the Bart on Friday, and everything clicked into place as the Hoosiers routed the Bulldogs 11-2
Indiana Hoosiers 11, Butler Bulldogs 2:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Graduate Student Ty Bothwell, while he has had long outings, got the ball to start a game for the first time this season. He showed he can be just as (if not more) effective as the first arm out of the gate. He was electric for 8 full innings, the only serious blemish was a 2-run home run off the bat of Joey Urban in the top of the fifth inning. Bothwell did not walk anyone and allowed only one free base with a grazing hit-by-pitch. He scattered six hits and rarely even dealt with runners in scoring position. After the game, head coach Jeff Mercer reflected on Bothwell, “I think what gets lost is Ty’s obsessive desire to work and to compete for Indiana, to win for Indiana.”
Indiana jumped to a quick 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. Carter Mathison went the other way against the shift to get on base and Tyler Cerny ripped a hung breaking ball for an RBI double. Mercer wanted more there, however. “I’d like to see us finish that inning, but it was a great start.”
Indiana added another run in the bottom of the fourth inning. Nick Mitchell hit a one-out single the other way and Joey Brenczewski gets Mitchell to third with a single that setup Josh Pyne to crush a warning track sacrifice fly.
In the top of the fifth, Bothwell allowed a single and made the mistake to Urban and the game was tied. Bothwell wasn’t phased. He said after the game, “Just do my job. I knew that I had guys behind me if they hit and we have a really talented offense.” Ty kept up his end of the bargain pitching three more scoreless frames.
Bothwell was right about the guys behind him. Pyne aflashed the leather in this one when he caught a foul ball while colliding with the clubhouse.
Zoned in. 😤 pic.twitter.com/7m18XxZDqH
— Indiana Baseball (@IndianaBase) March 30, 2024
And in the bottom of the fifth, the bats woke up. Freshman Andrew Wiggins scorched a ball 114mph off the bat for a ground-rule double to dead center. He got to third on a groundout with one out for Tyler Cerny who only needed to get to the outfield to plate him. Cerny had other ideas as he crushed a two-run homer. Devin Taylor then made it Back-to-back jacks with a long ball of his own. After the game Taylor spoke about the offensive production. “I’ve been working on it with Zach [Weatherford] every day, every morning. It feels really good to see the results.”
Indiana poured it on with six runs in the sixth inning including a two-RBI double by Mathison with the bases loaded and a home run off the bat of Brock Tibbitts. With run support behind him Bothwell came out for the eighth inning and touched 94 mph on his 95th pitch of the day. Bothwell explained that he was “just trying to pour it out. We talk about closing every inning. Our job is to go inning by inning, pitch by pitch.”
Merecr and pitching coach went to junior Ryan Kraft for the ninth. The 2023 first team All-B1G pitcher has struggled the season, and this gave them an opportunity to put him in a low stress situation. An error on a dropped third strike gave him an early base runner to deal with, but he settled in and closed the game with a strikeout giving up zero runs.
Indiana is now 14-13 on the season and concludes the series with Butler on Saturday. The Hoosiers and Bulldogs will play a doubleheader starting at 2pm.