Two bullpen arms struggle in a 5-run 7th inning that tied the game
By Carl James @jovian34 February 21st, 2026
Indiana Hoosiers: 8, Notre Dame Fighting Irish: 9 (11 innings)
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score | Postgame Media
Indiana took a 5-run lead into the bottom of the 7th inning against Notre Dame in Jacksonville. Starting pitcher Jackson Bergman had given the Hoosiers 5 solid innings of work, allowing three runs. Jackson Yarberry pitched a scoreless sixth.
Indiana’s offense was doing well. They plated single runs in the first and fourth innings. Copper Malamazian had a huge three-run double in the top of the fifth inning, and freshman Landen Fry drove in the second of two runs in the top of the 7th inning. Fry had three hits on the day. So did sophomore designated hitter Brayden Ricketts, who has come alive this weekend.
Yarberry came back out for the 7th. Keep in mind Yarberry had thrown 20 pitches and allowed the lead killing home run to LSU on Friday. Yarberry gave up a solo home run and then walked the next two batters. Indiana then turned to lefty Conner Linn, who got the win in two innings of work against Bradley on Tuesday. Linn faced three batters, all who reached base and the Hoosier lead was down to one run when the coaches turned to junior righty Jacob Vogel, who allowed and inherited run via a sacrifice fly to tie the game.
Vogel really settled things, pitching a total of 3.2 innings without giving up a run of his own. He struckout 5 without allowing a free pass. It’s clear by the choice to extend Yarberry and bring in Linn that Vogel’s performance was unexpected. If Vogel had pitched the 7-8-9th as well as he pitched the 8-9-10th, Indiana would have walked away with an easy win.
Once Vogel ran out of gas, the coaches turned the game over to talented freshman Kellen English. The thing about a 6’9″ lanky young pitcher is that it takes even more development time to get consistent on command. That being said, the stuff is really good and English got out of a jam in the 10th. The command issue came back to bite in the 11th when English plunked two batters putting the winning run on base. The coaches turned to Michael Sarhatt, and he proceeded to plunk a batter as well. A two-out fly ball to deep left center was not catchable as the outfield was playing too far up to get to it and the Irish walked off for the win.
Now that also means that Indiana failed to score in the 8th-11th innings. This is an unfortunate pattern repeating from last season when the offense would go cold for long periods facing the less daunting end of an opponents bullpen. Most notably lefty Noah Rooney needed only 24 pitches to record 8 Hoosier outs. The crafty lefty tossed a lot of off-speed generating weak contact for easy outs in the field. This kind of pitcher has often proved more of a problem to Indiana hitters than the more highly rated, hard throwing foes. Late Sunday pitching shouldn’t keep a Hoosier offense stagnant.
Once Rooney left, the Hoosiers finally had a threat going with two outs in the top of the 10th, when T.J Schuyler laced a single to right for the backstops first hit of the season. The Hoosiers should have had a runner in scoring position for Ayden Crouse and the rest of the top of the order, but Cole Decker tried to take third base and was thrown out to end the inning. I do not know if it was Decker’s decision or Mercer’s as third base coach, but it stopped the only real late threat the Hoosiers had. While Crouse was out to lead off the 11th, it’s not hard to imagine a more pressure packed at-bat could have forced a different outcome.
What do we know about IU’s pitching now?
With two tough weeks in the books, the reliable pitching options seem more in focus now. The good news is that IU has three solid starters, something they haven’t had going back to 2021. The other good news is that the top three relievers all are capable of close to starter level pitch counts. The bad news for now: that is where the list essentially stops. Tony Neubeck, Brayton Thomas, and Jackson Bergman make a great rotation. Gavin Seebold, Reagan Rivera, and Jacob Vogel look to provide reliable long late innings.
The thing is that in a typical series, at least one of the starters is either going to run into trouble or at least face a game with an elevated pitch count and a necessary early exit. There are two ways to deal with that: go to the reliable arm immediately for as long as possible, or put in a less reliable arm to bridge the gap. On Friday Neubeck and Seebold both took a lot of pitches against the gauntlet of the LSU lineup. On Saturday Thomas and Rivera were efficient enough to complete the game just the two of them. Sunday, as I mentioned earlier, I’m not sure the faith in Vogel was quite there yet. That was at least a positive out of Sunday.
From what I’ve seen Yarberry is quite good out of the gate. He was landing good stuff low in the zone. Even on Friday, I felt LSU got lucky with that jam shot single that setup the three-run homer. Yarberry also managed a solid single inning today. Perhaps he is best deployed as a single inning reliever (although that is rarely how Mercer has ever done it at IU). This could be as a bridge to one of the three, or as closer.
In any case, I think Seebold, Rivera, and Vogel have to have at most one other bullpen arm in front of them with a very short leash. When these innings balloon, it is always at least two arms struggling back-to-back (or a big defensive miscue) that makes these so bad. I think its okay to give one of these arms a try, but having one arm you don’t fully trust follow-up another is asking for what the Hoosiers have seen four times so far this season: a monster inning that leads to Indiana losing.
What do I mean by “trust”? That means both having good stuff that can get outs and the ability to consistently land those pitches in the spots they are called in during pressure situations. I fully recognize that every team would like 15 guys that can do that and almost no one does. As of now, it looks like Indiana has just six or seven. Even with most of them being stretched out, that will not be enough to win at a high level against Power-4 competition. Like past years they will have to develop more of these over the spring and that process will likely be painful and could lead to some ugly midweek games, as the trusted pitchers may be exclusively throwing on the weekends. I think it is important to not get down on these guys when that happens.
There is more good news: The pitch calling appears to have improved year over year. With Matt Myers, we are seeing more three-pitch strikeouts, and fewer obvious uncompetitive chase pitches (where no one chases) in pitcher advantageous counts. Hoosiers pitching has really cut down on strikeouts, but I’m okay with that because often times strikeouts are expensive outs when it come to pitch counts, and pitch counts are at a premium without a deep staff.
How can they fix the depth issues?
The most likely way is through developing the talented freshman class. Most good postseason teams have numerous innings covered by freshman. Also of the six trusted pitchers, four exhaust eligibilty this year and the other two are MLB Draft eligible. It is likely none of them will be back next season. The Hoosiers need to get these freshman experience so that they can be the ones to take on these roles next season and the coaches can use the transfer portal to plug holes, not try to build a whole new staff.