Several new Hoosier arms will likely be on display against a solid offense at Jim Patterson Stadium at 12 noon
By Carl James @jovian34 September 21st, 2024
updated September 22nd, 2024, to reflect change in start time to 12 noon ET
Our first look at the 2025 Indiana Hoosier Baseball team will commence tomorrow against ACC rival Louisville Cardinals on Sunday at 1pm 12 noon ET. If this follows the pattern of past seasons, the two teams will likely play 14 to 15 innings featuring new pitchers each inning. Chris Feeny and I will be on-site with updates via X and our own live game blog.
Indiana has been the better program over the past two seasons with NCAA Tournament appearances in both. The Louisville program has been struggling the past two seasons with poor records in ACC play and missing the post-season in both of the last years. Still, the Cardinals are a recruiting powerhouse in the nation’s number two league.
Per NCAA restrictions, this will be one of only two contests against outside teams during the fall for both programs. For Louisville this will conclude their fall exhibition slate, as they played 15 innings at Purdue this past weekend in an offense-heavy matchup where both teams scored 17 runs.
What are we looking for from Indiana?
Indiana fans will be most interested in seeing the incoming transfer pitchers that are likely to be called on in February to provide a floor to a pitching staff that at times last season gave up runs in bunches. The transfer core is led by Southern Indiana transfer Gavin Seebold. A 6-1, 200-pound righty, Seebold was ranked 79th in D1Baseball’s top impact pitching transfers this summer. Seebold will be joined by former Screaming Eagle teammate Clayton Weisheit. The remaining transfers are Will Eldridge from Indiana Wesleyan, Indiana State transfer Cole Gilley, lefty Delaware transfer Anthony Gubitosi, Stonehill transfer Peter Haas, Iona transfer Michael Lorenzetti, Saint Francis transfer Deron Swanson, and Saint Louis transfer Jackson Yarberry.
Another group of pitchers that will be interesting to see will be the two returners who missed action with injury in 2024: lefty Matt Bohnert and righty Ben Grable. Both were originally expected to be key contributors. The pitching staff will likely be lead by right-handed graduate student Drew Buhr, who was granted an extra year of eligibility by the NCAA this summer, and lefty senior Ryan Kraft, who had a phenomenal summer as the Northwoods League Pitcher of the Year.
Indiana is bringing back five of the eight regular starters from the 2024 position player core. The group is headlined by expected 2025 first round MLB Draft pick, left fielder Devin Taylor, who will no doubt be on the short list for the Golden Spikes Award. Taylor was just named the number two 2025 MLB Draft prospect to play in the elite Cape Cod League this summer. Taylor also started for Team USA this summer in the International Friendship Series.
The outfield has two starting positions to fill vacated by MLB Draft picks. Most likely one of those will be sophomore Andrew Wiggins who did start several games last year as a designated hitter with a 1.011 OPS in 73 plate appearances in his freshman campaign. Four transfers and a freshman will compete for playing time in the outfield. Look for big, physical Xavier transfer Tyler DeMartino to be a potential impact player. Of note is Louisville transfer Korbyn Dickerson who will starting his Hoosier career at the field he called home last spring. Working through adversity, highly touted outfield prospect Ryan Gilbert returns to the Hoosier fall team after three years facing illness and working his way back to Division I via Bryan & Stratton.
The Hoosier infield is absolutely stacked, with all five positions returning guys who started significant numbers of games this past spring. This group includes junior MLB Draft prospect Tyler Cerny at shortstop and is led by senior third baseman Josh Pyne. Jasen Oliver, now a sophomore, had a huge second half of the spring season at second base. Catcher Jake Stadler and first baseman Joey Brenczewski were key pieces to the 2024 campaign and return as well. Add to that is the return of slugging catcher/first baseman AJ Sheppard who had a phenomenal opening weekend at Coastal Carolina before being injured in a collision that ended his redshirt freshman season.
It is not clear how much of a highly touted freshman class will see playing time in this road matchup. Both of Indiana’s fall games will be Power-4 programs as the Hoosiers host Cincinnati out of the Big 12 on October 5th. That freshman class includes two players who were selected in the 2024 MLB Draft and turned down offers from the Milwaukee Brewers to come to the Indiana campus. Cooper Malamazian is a shortstop, and Henry Brummel is a left handed-pitcher.
What will Louisville bring to the match-up?
Louisville has plenty of bats to challenge Hoosier pitching. Lucas Moore lead-off against Purdue and got four hits of Boilermaker pitching. Louisville has solid depth at all positions and should give pitching coach Dustin Glant good competition to gauge how his transfer pitchers are adjusting to this level of play.
On the mound Louisville features Indiana State transfer Brennyn Cutts, who was the standout pitcher for last years’ regional team that just missed out on hosting for the second straight season. Hoosier hitters will see electric stuff out of the hand of Patrick Forbes who started last week’s game in West Lafayette. Forbes touched 97mph in that outing.
This will be the first clash between these two schools since a nationally televised spring game in 2023 which served as a statement win for the Hoosiers and started the slide the Cardinals have yet to recover from.