Tibbitts’ 3 RBI triple caps the comeback and “Big Game” Ty Bothwell holds onto for the win on the mound
By Carl James @jovian34 March 2nd, 2024
It required a rally from down 6-1 in the top of the sixth inning, but the no. 20 Hoosiers managed to score eight runs to take a 9-7 win at the Frisco Classic in Frisco, TX on Saturday over no. 25 Dallas Baptist. It was Indiana’s second top-25 victory of the young season.
Indiana Hoosiers 9, Dallas Baptist Patriots 7:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Starting at Bart Kaufman Field on Tuesday it had been a really tough week for the Indiana Baseball program. Riding high off of a true road sweep of Baylor, the no. 20 Hoosiers were stunned by getting behind 8-0 to Purdue Ft Wayne and losing to 1-6 Mastodons by a score of 9-6. Then Friday night the Hoosiers were dominated in a 12-0 run-rule by no. 16 Alabama.
Things seemed to be going further down the drain in the bottom of the fifth inning in Frisco, TX, today as the Hoosiers were down 2-1 and starting pitcher Connor Foley had just allowed two free bases with one out. Head Coach Jeff Mercer came out to the mound to make a pitching change. Here is how Mercer described the conversation: ” so I went out and we brought Bothwell in and told the team we’re going for this game, whether you like it or not. We are going for this game. We’re going to Bothwell and we’re going to go for it so I don’t care what the score is and I don’t care you know, our feelings essentially at this point, but we’re going to go for the win.”
It didn’t get immediately better. Bothwell surrendered three hits and a sacrifice fly. Add in a throwing error and the Hoosiers were down 6-2. “Yeah, it was ugly. We were ugly for about five or six innings in the middle especially right at the beginning where we played soccer in the fifth inning. We were trying to play as bad as baseball as we could play. We were successful at that.”
The Hoosier bats started to chip away in the top of the sixth. Devin Taylor lead off the inning with a single. Brock Tibbitts ripped a double and Carter Mathison drove Taylor home with a sacrifice fly. Tyler Cerny added one more with a single down the right field line to cut the Dallas Baptist lead to 3. Ty Bothwell settled in the bottom of the sixth with what would be his first of three straight 1-2-3 innings.
Then in the top of the seventh the Hoosiers roared back. Austin Bode, who started as DH, lead off the inning collecting his first hit as a Hoosier. Freshman Andrew Wiggins pinch hit for Brandon Burckel and drew a 4-pitch walk. prompting a Dallas Baptist pitching change. Nick Mitchell drew a 7-pitch walk to load the bases. With one out Taylor singled to plate Bode bringing up Brock Tibbitts with the tying run in scoring position. Tibbitts crushed a ball that ricocheted laterally off the left field wall. The bases cleared and Tibbitts slid in with a triple. The Hoosiers were now up 7-6.
Indiana added some insurance in the 8th thanks to an errant pickoff throw and singles off the bats of Mitchell and Josh Pyne. The Hoosiers took a 9-6 lead into the bottom of the ninth inning.
After his 11th straight batter retired, Bothwell surrendered a solo home run which cut the Hoosier lead to two. Things got dicey as a pair of singles put the tying run on base. After a mound visit by pitching coach Dustin Glant, Bothwell induced a ground ball to second base where freshman defensive replacement Hayden Carlson combined with Tyler Cerny to turn a double play to end the game with a Hoosier victory.
3/2 Postgame Interview: Coach Jeff Mercer of @IndianaBase🎙️
— Frisco Classic ⚾️ (@FriscoClassic) March 3, 2024
📷: Worrell Media pic.twitter.com/7tcqvaCMmN
After the game Tibbitts who was a homer shy of the cycle said, “Yeah, I mean baseball is just such an up and down game you. Some days everything’s fine and some days you’re hitting it right at people. Just being able to grind out a win like this and the fifth inning on be able to string a few hits together to come out on top is awesome.”
Indiana moves to 7-3 on the young season and 1-1 in the Frisco Classic. The Hoosiers will face Arizona at 1pm ET on Sunday to conclude their portion of the event. Arizona has lost a pair of 1-run games to Alabama and Dallas Baptist this weekend so far.