Pitching holds Aces to four runs, Taylor and Malamazian come up big in late innings with home runs
By Carl James @jovian34 March 19th, 2025
“The number one successful trait of people is availability. You’re available physically. You’re available mentally to learn. The second one is adjustability.”
— Head Coach Jeff Mercer
Indiana Hoosiers 7, Evansville Purple Aces 4
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
A week prior to this game against Evansville, Coach Jeff Mercer made a huge change to how his pitchers were deployed, by bringing in Friday starter Gavin Seebold to close the game at Indiana State. That kicked off a five-game win streak in which the Hoosier pitching staff has averaged just 4 runs per game, for a staff that had an ERA well north of 6.00 before the win streak.
6 Hoosier pitchers were called on. They combined for just 4 runs and 10 strikeouts and a game WHIP of 1.00. The game was bookended by a pair of scoreless frames from Cole Gilley and Pete Haas. Freshman Trey Telfer had a 6-pitch 1-2-3 third inning. Senior Ryan Kraft did his job, limiting the damage in his two innings of work to one run on a single hit (a lead-off triple). Kraft told the media afterwards, “We are just sticking to our plan of getting ahead… you get two strikes, you put them away. Just stay on the attack.”
When you throw that many pitchers in one game, someone is usually bound to struggle. Sophomore righty Seth Benes faced just three batters in the sixth inning and did not record an out, allowing a run to score on a wild pitch. What allowed Indiana to keep this situation from ballooning into a monster inning for Evansville was the success of the next pitcher.
Mercer and pitching coach went to veteran lefty Grant Holderfield. Over the past couple of seasons, since returning from an injury that sidelined him for all of 2023, Holderfield has found himself in the middle of some Indiana’s really ugly innings on the mound. Not Tuesday. Holderfield allowed one of Benes’ remaining runners to score on a sacrifice fly before getting Indiana back into the dugout with a 1-run lead intact.
Holderfield did allow the Aces to tie the game with one run of his own in the 7th, but he and the defense managed the jam and limited the damage. These are the kinds of innings that have turned into what coach Mercer has called “a grenade on the mound” a few weeks ago.
Mercer reflected on what the veterans Kraft and Holderfield have provided in recent weeks. “Two weeks ago they weren’t leverage guys, then they became ‘tweeners, and now the last couple of days they are leverage guys, because they are able to adjust. Kraft’s change-up has been a much better pitch. Holderfield reinvented himself into the sinker/change-up guy.”
Now Evansville was just as, arguably even more, effective on the mound up to that point. Only two of Indiana’s first four runs were earned. A heavy off-speed mix from a variety of Ace arms had Hoosier hitters making weak contact. Mercer reflected, “I didn’t think we were very good offensively… Kudos to [Evansville] for landing off-speed and continuing to throw them.”
Devin Taylor was the exception on Tuesday. He drove in two runs on three hits, including breaking the 7th inning tie with a solo shot. Mercer was impressed with his junior outfielder. “That was such a professional at-bat. A guy with a ton of arm-side run on his fastball, on his change-up. [Taylor] just stayed on it and carried that ball out of here to left.”
In the bottom of the 8th, holding on to a one-run lead, freshman Cooper Malamazian, who Mercer said, “had expanded early with some off-speed,” adjusted and allowed the Hoosiers to breathe a little. He took a first breaking ball up in the zone for a strike. The pitcher challenged him again and Malamazian crushed it to left center for a two-run homer.
After the game Malamazian discussed his adjustment. “When you get a curveball, you want to think about head-high halfway to you. So early in the game I was chasing away… Really dug deep into that, thought about that more, saw that head-high halfway to me, and got lucky and drove one deep.”
While in the early innings, the position player group (save Taylor) mostly struggled, they did help their pitchers a lot with the glove. While he committed the games only error, Tyler Cerny saved a run with a crazy difficult catch running backwards into the outfield. Hogan Denny, who literally started practicing at second base just this past week, robbed a hit making a great leaping catch early. Will Moore replaced him when the Hoosiers took the lead, and he made two fantastic plays include a catch going backwards. Mercer was thrilled not just for the athletic play, but also the decision making. “He throws the ball home, which was a brilliant play, even beyond what I had understood at the time.” Moore was backed up into right field in the wind. The runner on second was looking to tag to third base knowing that if the catch was made, Moore would likely be very off-balance. Had Moore seen the tag and tried to throw out the runner, the distance of the throw, might have allowed the runner to round third and score with the ball coming behind him.
Indiana next flies to Los Angeles to face B1G leading UCLA starting 9pm on Friday.