Timely hitting and the pitching duo of Foley and Bothwell bring Indiana victorious
By Zach Horwitz @HorwitzZach February 17th, 2024 – photos by Carl James
Indiana bounced back from a tough opening day defeat by knocking off the 18th-ranked Coastal Carolina Chanticleers, the hosts of the “Baseball at the Beach” weekend.
Indiana’s Connor Foley made his first career start, throwing four scoreless innings and striking out seven. The sophomore fought through much adversity, beginning in the initial frame. With two outs in the first inning, a hit, walk, and catcher’s interference put the Hoosiers in dangerous territory. Despite the threat, Foley continued to attack Coastal batters with his fastball. The flamethrower was sitting around 95 mph and reached up to 97 mph on the popup that got him out of the inning. As one would expect, there may have been nerves that come along with making your starting debut. Foley, after allowing a double, balked to advance the Chanticleer runner to third base. In the offseason, Foley mentioned, “just landing in second and third pitches, you need that in order to become a starter”. He did exactly that. The 6’5 Jasper, IN native spun some offspeed pitches to get himself out of the inning on two consecutive strikeouts.
On the other side was Alexander Meckley, a transfer out of JUCO program WVU Potomac State College. The junior right-hander posed no match for Indiana through the first three innings but found himself in some trouble in the top of the fourth. Brock Tibbitts and Tyler Cerny got aboard via singles to jumpstart a two-out rally. Purdue transfer Jake Stadler reached base on a walk, and the bases were juiced for freshman AJ Shepard. A groundout retired the Hoosiers’ chance to grasp the lead early on in the ballgame but they replicated the chance again in the fifth.
Indiana got their leadoff batter aboard for the first time in the fifth inning. With Meckley up to 80 pitches, CCU Head Coach Gary Gilmore went to the bullpen in hopes of getting an inning-ending double play. He went after the matchup game, bringing LHP Bryce Shaffer into the ballgame to face reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year Devin Taylor. Taylor didn’t get any playing opportunity in last season’s opening weekend series, but he sure made the most of his chances here. The highly touted sophomore drove the ball the other way, giving IU a 1-0 lead. Brock Tibbitts followed suit, lining a sacrifice fly to center field to plate Carter Mathison and extend the Indiana lead to two. Those runs were charged to Alexander Meckley.
Sixth-year graduate student Ty Bothwell was a workhorse for Jeff Mercer today. He faced 23 batters on the afternoon, allowing four hits, two runs, and walking only two batters. A throwing error that advanced a runner to second base and a “Texas league” bloop double brought Coastal Carolina within one. Following a single, a walk, and a hit-by-pitch, Bothwell dug deep to strike out Coastal SS Ty Dooley with the bases loaded, and things were knotted up at two.
In the eighth inning, Indiana pounced on an opportunity. Junior Brandon Burckel, a transfer from Houston, jumped on a high-velocity pitch and sent his fifth career homerun over the fence and into the Hoosier bullpen. Timely hitting gave Indiana a 3-2 lead, which brought energy to the IU dugout. Bothwell pitched a simple 1-2-3 inning, and the Hoosiers snatched up some insurance runs.
Devin Taylor led off the inning with his second hit of the day and was substituted as a runner by Sam Murrison. Brock Tibbitts also had a multi-hit day, setting up Tyler Cerny to drive in two baserunners. AJ Shepard completely broke it open, launching a home run over the teal wall in right-centerfield. Indiana then took a five-run cushion, leading 7-2, in which Ty Bothwell would hurl a clean ninth to take down a ranked Coastal Carolina squad on the road.
Through clutch hitting and a split pitching day from Foley and Bothwell, the Hoosiers came out victorious for the first time in 2024. They will face George Mason at 11:00 am tomorrow, a team that has allowed 49 runs in their first two matchups. Keep an eye out for newcomers and a jumbled pitching encore in tomorrow’s contest. The game can be viewed on ESPN+.
Standouts:
Connor Foley: 4.0 IP, 2 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 7 K
Ty Bothwell: 5.0 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 0 ER, 2 BB, 4 K
Devin Taylor: 2-5, RBI
Brock Tibbitts: 2-4, RBI, R
Tyler Cerny: 2-4, 2 RBI
AJ Shepard: 1-5, 2 RBI, HR
Brandon Burckel: 1-4, RBI, HR, 2 R