Indiana was plagued again by the big inning with two outs that never seems to end, while the offense was held to 3 hits.
By Carl James @jovian34 March 23rd, 2024
Indiana pitching put up seven zero run innings and one more with just a single run, but the lone crooked number was the problem. It was the sixth inning that spelled disaster as Ty Bothwell and Julian Tonghini, two of the Hoosiers’ most trusted arms, gave up an 8-spot to put the game well out of hand.
Indiana Hoosiers 1, Illinois 9:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score | Post Game Media
Illinois righty Jack Crowder was on his game. Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer reflected, “the Crowder kid was just really good. 95-96 with ride through almost the entirety of his outing.” Crowder lasted five innings and was replaced by lefty Regan Hall after one batter in the sixth inning. Mercer admitted that “we weren’t very competitive offensively late. It showed in our at-bats.”
The Hoosiers ended up 4 for 30 on the day with 4 walks and 11 strikeouts. They plated just one run on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Tyler Cerny in the fifth inning. Carter Mathison had two of Indiana’s four hits and also reached via a walk.
Ethan Phillips opened on the mound and worked around a hit and two walks to hand the ball to Bothwell in the third with no runs. Bothwell was his usual electric self for three innings allowing only two base runners, but all that unraveled in the sixth. Bothwell allowed a single, two doubles, and a walk.
Then came Tonghini. The righty was essentially given an out by Illinois via a sacrifice bunt. “They bunted which gave us the idea that we don’t need to have anybody else up. You get a ground ball to Oliver, and you get a guy on third base with two outs.” At this point Illinois had scored three runs. Tonghini needed just one more out to keep the Hoosiers within two runs. What followed was a single, a wild pitch, two walks and a hit-by-pitch, two more singles, and one more walk before finally getting that third out.
After the game was essentially decided, Indiana used three pitchers they are trying to develop. Each pitched one inning. Eli Shaw gave up a run on two hits, but Jacob Vogel and Seti Manase each had 1-2-3 innings. Manase struck two batters out. “Seti has done a really good job. He’s had a tough deal, faced some really tough offenses, and has had a really tough go of it. It’s not necessarily his fault. You look at his evolution, the slider has been much better. The splitter he was really able to get across the plate and down.”
The Hoosiers are now just .500 on the year (11-11) and are among the four teams to start B1G play 0-1. The Illinois series continues Saturday at 2pm with Indiana’s one true starting pitcher, Connor Foley on the bump.