Live Blog: At Texas Sunday

Live Blog as Hoosiers try to avoid sweep against the Longhorns

By Carl James @jovian34 February 26th, 2023

Bottom 9th: Indiana 4, Texas 2 (FINAL)

Hoosiers need three outs to get a win. Campbell pops out to Cerny who had to make a basket catch. Kraft strikes out Brown looking. Cerny catches another pop up. HOOSIERS WIN!

Top 9th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

Hurley has been doing well and is back out for the ninth. Tibbitts grounds out. Colopy strikes out. Cerny is also called out a back door slider.

Bottom 8th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

Kraft is back out. Daly flies out. Kraft strikes out Thomas. A ground out finishes a 1-2-3 inning. Indiana goes into the 9th with a two-run lead.

Top 8th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

After a long review Hunter Jessee gets on via an infield single. Pyne and Whalen go down on strikes. Mathison is called out on a strikes with a check swing on a 3-2 pitch.

Bottom 7th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

Ryan Kraft, the loser on Saturday, is now pitching for Indiana. A pop up to Tibbitts makes it two quick outs. Andre Duplantier II gets a pinch hit single. Texas bizarrely chooses to test Serruto’s arm yet again. Chalk up FOUR runners gunned down for the Jersey kid.

Top 7th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

Charlie Hurley, a 6-8 righty is the new Longhorn pitcher. 1-2-3 quick inning heading into the stretch. Pyne fields a check swing roller for a ground-out.

Bottom 6th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

Cooper Hellman is the new Hoosier pitcher. The Hoosiers have struggled with balls to the right side of the infield and Cerny misses Hellman. Brown gets on. Brown attempts a delayed steal, but is gunned down by Serruto who is having a day. Guillemette walks on four pitches. Serruto gets him as well on a ball in the turf. Three caught stealing by Serruto today. WOW!

Top 6th: Indiana 4, Texas 2

Peter Serruto gets a hit to stop the string of 1-2-3 innings. Glasser flies out to foul territory. Jessee works a full count. Sthele BALKS Serruto into scoring position. Jessee is out on a swinging bunt that advances Serruto to third. Pyne works the count full. A two-out, two-strike single off the bat of Josh Pyne gets the Hoosiers on the board. Whalen singles which forces a pitching change by Texas. Heston Tole is the new Longhorn pitcher. Mathison breaks his weekend slump with an RBI single. TIE GAME! Another Texas pitching change. Chris Stuart is the new pitcher. Brock Tibbitts rips a 2-RBI double and Indiana finally has their big inning of the weekend and takes a lead.

Bottom 5th: Indiana 0, Texas 2

Hoosier bullpen is active. Daly leads off with a single to right field, his second hit of the day. Serruto throws out Daly on the steal attempt and Thomas strikes out. Luke Sinnard ends this inning with his seventh strikeout. That will likely be his last inning. Another excellent Sunday start for the tall righty!

Top 5th: Indiana 0, Texas 2

Death by ground balls. Hoosiers are not going to accomplish much on the ground with this Texas infield but that’s all they seem to be doing. Cerny strikes out to end the second consecutive 1-2-3 ining for Sthele.

Bottom 4th: Indiana 0, Texas 2

Guillemette with a lead-off single, but Sinnard gets a pop-up, strikeout, and fly out to end the inning.

Top 4th: Indiana 0, Texas 2

Pyne gets eaten up by another great Texas infield defensive play. Then Whalen gets on with an errant throw. Carter Mathison goes down for the 8th time this weekend, this time via the strikeout. Whalen then gets caught stealing ending the inning.

Bottom 3rd: Indiana 0, Texas 2

Mitchell Daly hits a double over Carter Mathison’s head to lead off the inning. Jared Thomas doubles off of the glove of Hunter Jessee which holds Daly at third. This puts two in scoring position with no outs and the top of the Longhorn is up. Kennedy pops up to Brock Tibbitts for out number one. Sinnard gets ahead of Campbell who keeps fouling pitches off and works it to a full count. Campbell hits an RBI ground out. Brown flies out to center on another full count. Nice work by Sinnard to keep the top of the order from producing a crooked number spotted two in scoring position.

Top 3rd: Indiana 0, Texas 1

Tyler Cerny gets a single to lead off the inning. Serruto lays down a great sacrifice bunt and is just beat to first, but advances Cerny to scoring position with one out. Cerny advances to third on a hard hit one-hopper to the first baseman. Hunter Jessee watches strike three to end another inning with a runner 90 feet away.

Bottom 2nd: Indiana 0, Texas 1

Sinnard is working quickly. Jack O’Dowd flies out and Jalin Flores strikes out. Peyton Powell works a full count from Sinnard. Tyler Cerny at second bobbles a hard-hit ball, but makes the play to first for a 1-2-3 inning.

Top 2nd: Indiana 0, Texas 1

A very quick inning as has been common for Hoosier hitters this week. Two ground-outs then Matthew Ellis fould tips into the mitt for an ending inning strikeout.

Bottom 1st: Indiana 0, Texas 1

Luke Sinnard starts the game with a three-pitch strikeout of Eric Kennedy. He also sets down Dylan Campbell on strikes. Porter Brown pulls a solo home run into the wind in left field. Sinnard ends the inning with a strikeout of Garret Guillumette.

Top 1st: Indiana 0, Texas 0

Travis Sthele is the pitcher for Texas. He gave up 8 unearned runs in three innings of work to Vanderbilt last week. Phillip Glasser hits a 1-0 pitch for an outfield single. Indiana managed only one of those the entire game on Saturday. Glasser gets to second on an errant pick-off throw by Sthele. Hunter Jessee works a full count and strikes out on the 9th pitch of the at bat. Pyne also goes down on strikes. Glasser steals third base. Whalen works a full count and grounds out softly to short, but the Texas defense ends the threat.

Starting Lineup

Luke Sinnard earned the win at Auburn one week ago in a similar scenario as the Hoosier’s Sunday starter on the mound. Tyler Cerny gets the start at second base. Peter Serruto will catch this game, moving Matthew Ellis to DH. This means that Evan Goforth, Devin Taylor, and Morgan Colopy will be on the bench available for match-up pinch hitting opportunities. One possible move if the Hoosiers need a left handed bat in mid to late innings is Taylor pinch hitting for Serruto, staying in the game, and swapping positions with Brock Tibbitts. Coach Mercer has said he expects Tibbitts to take some innings at catcher this season, but we have not seen that yet. Taylor spent a lot of time in the fall at first base.