Landen Fry’s three hit day not near enough as the Hoosiers unraveled late on Sunday
By Carl James @jovian34 March 29th, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers: 4, no. 24 Nebraska Cornhuskers: 12
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
When playing a team of the caliber of no. 24 Nebraska, or most teams on Indiana’s tough schedule, you can’t give an offense extra outs to play with, and you can’t give away outs to their pitching. The Hoosiers did both on Sunday and got burned.
The key was the first inning. Reigning MAC Pitcher of the Year and former Hoosier Cooper Katskee, now a Nebraska Cornhusker, gets his first weekend start against his old team. Emotions had to be high. Head coach Jeff Mercer talks about how emotions can be an enemy of a baseball player, particularly a pitcher.
Cole Decker leads off the game working an 8-pitch walk. Hogan Denny drives Decker in with a double. Jake Hanley and Caleb Koskie follow that up with two singles. Katskee is facing Brayden Ricketts, the fifth batter of the game, having allowed two runs and still having not gotten an out. The Hoosiers were in a position to blow up on Katskee, score a knockout blow in the first and possibly force an early move to the Nebraska bullpen.
Then the bat was taken out of Ricketts hands.
We didn’t interview head coach Jeff Mercer as we had no one in Lincoln this weekend. The thought process was likely that Ricketts has a tendency to hit into inning killing double plays. Mercer elected to have Ricketts sacrifice bunt to get both runners in scoring position. In the process, Katskee got a free out and a chance to breathe. He now only needed two more outs.
He immediately got ahead 0-2 on Cooper Malamazian. Malamazian fouled one off and to his credit, didn’t go chasing the outside sliders, worked a full count, then took a walk to load the bases. Katskee executed from there on. He jammed Landen Fry for an infield fly, and struck out freshman third baseman Mateo Noto on three pitches.
Indiana let Katskee breathe, and he turned back into the guy he’s been most of this season. The only other damage Indiana would put on him was a Fry solo home run that tied the game in the sixth after Nebraska had taken a lead.
To be fair, a ground ball double play was a distinct possibility, and I understand the logic of the call. However, hearing coach Mercer often talk about emotions this felt like an opportunity to proverbially step on the throat of the opposing pitcher. The decision felt like Indiana didn’t want to lose again as opposed to Indiana wanting to win.
Brayden Thomas labored through 3.1 innings allowing 5 hits and two runs. In the fourth Mercer went to Seebold who hadn’t been used yet this weekend. Seebold was human after all. Nebraska squared him up for 8 hits and 5 earned runs, including a home run.
The whole weekend was a disaster for Indiana defensively after a great start in the first three weeks of league play. Every starting infielder (five with the different lineups) had an error. Mateo Noto at third base fielded a 2-out grounder and instead of getting the batter-runner at first, rushed a bad throw to get the force out at second. Ayden Crouse in right field bobbled a double in the corner that allowed the one unearned run charged to Seebold to score.
Indiana was only down 4-3 at the 7th inning stretch, so it wasn’t like this game wasn’t competitive. Seebold allowed his 8th hit with two outs and the Hoosiers were down 6-3. Lefty Conner Linn after two successful midweek starts has been ostensibly groomed to take over the Friday opening duties from Reagan Rivera who has been inconsistent. You assumed he would see some action this weekend and not pitch at Evansville on Tuesday if that was the case.
Linn has struggled coming out of the pen and he did here as well. A single to right field was almost caught by Ayden Crouse in right field. Crouse through the ball back in and got the batter runner hung up in a rundown and tagged out. The two runners on base scored and the inning was over. The umpires, however indicated that the ruling on the field was a catch, despite the fact that Crouse never acted like he had caught it (thus throwing it back in). The umpires made head coach Will Bolt challenge it. The challenge overturned the obviously bad call and allowed the two runs to score, but because the call on the field was a catch, the ball was dead and Indiana could not tag the batter-runner, so the inning continued. Linn loaded the bases and gave up a grand slam. A line out kept the Huskers from a run rule walk off.
Indiana plated a run in the 8th and redshirt sophomore Evan O’Neill had another impressive 1-inning outing to keep the game at 8 runs and at least avoid a run rule.
The Hoosiers drop to 10-17 on the season, and 3-9 in Big Ten play, in 15th place ahead of Minnesota in 16th only due to the head-to-head tiebreaker from last weekend’s series at Bart Kaufman Field. That series win is looking less impressive as the Gophers have just dropped a series to Ohio State in Minneapolis. Indiana’s streak of 12 straight Big Ten Tournament appearances, the longest active stretch, is now in serious danger of being snapped.
Indiana gets a chance to reset a bit at Evansville Tuesday. The Purple Aces are also having a tough season. This may be a chance for the Hoosier bats to face less daunting pitching and get some confidence back before welcoming the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers into the Bart on Friday.