Mercer employs more unconventional bullpen moves and pinch hitters, leading to a conference series win
By Carl James @jovian34 March 15th, 2025
“As a as a coach you try to pride yourself you want to pride yourself on learning your team the course of the season and then being able to put the right guys in the right spots.”
— Head Coach Jeff Mercer
Indiana Hoosiers 8, Ohio State Buckeyes 7
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
In the second game of Friday’s doubleheader, Indiana ace Ben Grable struggled as Ohio State was hitting him well. Buckeye batters managed 5 runs, all earned, off of 8 hits in 4 innings of work. After the game coach Mercer had a thought as to why his Friday night starter struggled. “They picked Grable’s pitches and we weren’t sure where it was coming from, but verbals were coming in… they were sitting pitches and they did a great job. So kudos for them [Ohio State] for studying the tape and picking you.”
“If Devin doesn’t make that throw to the plate, we lose that game…”
–Head Coach Jeff Mercer
Grable was assisted by his defense. In the top of the fourth inning, an ailing Devin Taylor gunned down Trey Lipsey at home, denying the Buckeyes of what would be a crucial insurance run later in the game.
Mercer pulled Grable after four innings. “No matter how good Ben Grable is like you’re going to get some good swings off, and they did so kudos to them but also kudos for us for kind of bringing it together rallying around and okay we’re just going to have to get Ben out of the game and Krafty [senior Lefty Ryan Kraft] comes in gives him a different look.” Kraft pitched three frames and allowed a single run in two of them.
“We were able to make some adjustments with Kraft which was a big deal.”
–Head Coach Jeff Mercer
Mercer mentioned that Kraft’s cut fastball in particular was much improved in mid-week practice. This is a huge positive development for pitching coach Dustin Glant’s staff. The ability to get at least three quality innings weekly from Kraft makes covering the 36 inning of a typical week and the B1G Tournament more realistic going forward.
Offensively the Hoosiers were stymied for the first seven innings. They managed to score two unearned runs early. After six innings, Ohio State was outhitting Indiana 10 to 3. Buckeyes opened with Ryan Butler in what was supposed to be a bullpen game for them. Butler had limited success having thrown just 3.0 innings up to this point in the season. He was great matchup for the Hoosiers, going five full innings, only allowing two runs (both unearned) on only two hits.
Mercer talked about their struggles with Butler, “Their sinker guy was really good you know, low 90s with a good sinker, and that’s kind of been something that we’ve struggled with a little bit. The righty from Penn State was a really good sinker guy and I mean we were awesome against him. We have to we have to be like that all the time against sinker ballers.”
Once Butler was gone, the Hoosiers put up their first earned run when Andrew Wiggins hit a groundout with the bases loaded.
“Trey [Telfer] had a really good Wednesday [practice]… He did a really good job hanging a zero up for us.”
–Head Coach Jeff Mercer
The Comeback
When the bottom of the 8th inning started, The Hoosiers were down by four runs but there was plenty of anticipation that this Hoosier offense could come back on this Ohio State bullpen. The crowd hung on in good numbers, stayed loud as the Hoosiers went to work. Tyler Cerny took a painful fastball to the back. With Cerny on and no one out, freshman third baseman Cooper Malamazian hit a two-run homer to halve the lead.
Then Mercer decided to pinch hit freshman catcher/outfielder Hogan Denny for second baseman Jasen Oliver, who had already been a defensive replacement for freshman Will Moore. This would leave no obvious choice left to play second base.
“We had been practicing Hogan at second base all week just because he was swinging so well and trying to find another spot form him because our outfield’s so deep. So in in that situation I talked to [infield coach Blake Allen]. I said listen man, we’re going to have to take our shot with Hogan offensively even though it’s a little bit premature defensively. Once we scored the two, we had to take our shot.”
–Head Coach Jeff Mercer
Denny did not disappoint. He hit a double to get into scoring position for the top of the order with no one out. Andrew Wiggins then ripped an RBI triple to cut the lead to just one run. Devin Taylor then drove Wiggins in with an RBI groundout and like that the game was tied.
Then for the second time in three games, Mercer made the huge surprise decision to bringing in a starting pitcher at the end of a tight game. Cole Gilley was not announced but largely assumed to be the Sunday starter as he had been the past two weeks. But going into the 9th inning tied against a struggling bullpen, Mercer elected to clinch the series win and deal with Sunday on Sunday. When asked about this after the game Gilley said, “I’m just ready to whenever my time is called. I mean going in before the game I knew I was going to be hot today. We threw a pen two days ago and everything felt good, and it was just going out and just attacking.”
Gilley was just electric. As the Hoosiers failed to score in the bottom, he was called on for two innings. The only baserunner that reached was via a dropped third strike. He mixed his pitches up so well that Buckeye batters were hacking at pitches in the turf.
Since Mercer had left Denny in the game, the expected due up in the 10th were the 8-9-1 slots in the two freshman and one sophomore who got the comeback going with extra base hits in the 8th. Malamazian did not disappoint, rip a ground rule double to left, bringing up Denny, who only needed a single to plate Malamazian and clinch the series. Denny took two hard cuts at off-speed pitches in the turf and Jeff Mercer called timeout.
After the game Denny recalled, “I think I got just got a little jumpy. You’re in that situation you think you want to end it right now and just kind of got a little jumpy chased a couple pitches. [Mercer] called time. He calm me down a little bit. We just went back to our approach and just a nice little breather just to go back in there and attack and have confidence in myself and not try to do too much.”
Denny then laid off the next attempts to get his to chase, getting into a more favorable count. He crushed a pitch in the direction of the left field foul poll. The problem was that he hit the ball so high that the lights didn’t make it clear where the ball was. The third base umpire indicated foul. With the wind blowing a bit from the southeast, the ball landed in foul territory, but it sure seemed like it might have been fair when it passed the poll. Mercer challenged the call, but it stood, likely for a lack of any evidence since the ball was dark. Denny said, “I’m always going to say it’s fair even if you ask me if it was all the way foul, but I mean they reviewed it so there’s nothing we can do about it.”
Denny still had another chance. While the review was in progress he spoke to Mercer and hitting coach Zach Weatherford. Then he got back in the box and ended the game with a hard-hit single to right centerfield.
The win gets the Hoosiers over .500 at 10-9 overall and 3-2 in the Big Ten conference for the first time this season. The series will conclude with a Sunday game at 1pm as the Hoosiers will try to complete a league sweep to gain back some ground for a series loss against Penn State.