Hogan Denny goes 4-for-4 as four Hoosier pitchers hold the potent Commodore offense to one run
By Carl James @jovian34 March 17th, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers: 5, Vanderbilt Commodores: 1
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
With the naysayers piling on after a loss at Western Kentucky two weeks ago, Jeff Mercer defended his decision to schedule tough this season. “I want to play good teams all of the time. The only way for us to get better as a program is to play good teams all of the time. And to figure out how to go to the middle of a hornet’s nest and fight your way out of it.“
It hasn’t been a pretty ride to get here, but on Tuesday in a cold day in Nashville, all that tough experience finally paid off in a statement road victory at the home of arguably the premiere program in the nation over the past decade and half.
The Hoosiers have let so many potential statement wins slip away late this season. The throwing error at North Carolina, the lead killing home run given up against LSU, the five-run lead that melted away in Oregon just two days ago.
There was a moment on Tuesday when Indiana fans could feel victory slipping away. Bottom of the 8th inning, one-out, runner on first, Hoosiers up 5-1. Freshman righty Ivan Mastalski is pitching his second inning of work having just allowed the first Vanderbilt run to score. He gets exactly what he wants, a tailor-made double-play ball to fellow freshman second baseman Landen Fry. Fry doesn’t come up with it cleanly, goes to first instead, but is still too late. Mastalski had to feel he was out of the inning, but now it’s two on, just one out, and the tying run is suddenly in the on-deck circle.
Several times this scenario for Indiana this season has gone from bad to worse. How does the freshman respond? He does his job. He gets back on the mound and strikes the next guy out. Then he gets back on the mound and gets the last batter of the inning to fly out. Inning over. Lead preserved. The freshman hands the ball to the staff’s most dependable arm (graduate righty Gavin Seebold) with just three outs left and 4-run lead.
So here I am, six paragraphs into my piece on this game and mostly just talked about the one pitcher out of four who actually gave up a run on the day. Because this was the moment the script was flipped. The team proved that even though the inning was trending against them, even though there were back-to-back hits surrendered, even though there was a costly error, they got right back to it and got the outs anyway.
Now to give the rest who made this win possible their flowers.
Hogan Denny was a beast on Tuesday. 4 hits, 4 RBIS, 2 home runs, 2 doubles, 3 runs scored. That is 12 total bases and had a hand in all 5 of Indiana’s run scored. Vanderbilt came into this game with a 53-13 advantage in home runs on the season over Indiana. After today that is a 53-15 as Denny was the only player on either team to go yard on the day.
Conner Linn earned the win in a 3.2 inning open. He allowed no runs, struck out 5, walked only 1. The left-handed grad transfer has been making strides every outing, but this was his best effort yet. Jacob Vogel made sure Linn’s inherited runners were stranded then completed two innings himself. Gavin Seebold came in to shut the door in the 9th, allowed a 4-pitch walk, then immediately erased with a double play and faced the minimum to seal the deal.
The Hoosiers improve to 8-12 overall and an impressive 4-0 against a tough slate of midweeks. Now they have two days of Spring Break back in Bloomington to prepare for a resurgent Minnesota program to come into Bart Kaufman Field for a three-game set starting on Friday at 6pm. The Hoosiers have a 1-5 hole in league play to climb out of, but a statement win on the road and how they sealed it, could provide the confidence they need to make a big stride in that this weekend.
See YOU at the Bart!