Spotting the home team 6 runs in the first, Indiana wasn’t competitive against the SEC powerhouse, losing 13-5
By Carl James @jovian34 March 13th, 2024
With Juliana Tonghini down Sunday with “back tightness” and typical midweek starter Seth Benes down with “arm tightness last Wednesday, and the Hoosiers having pitched a long, arduous double-header on Sunday, the options for pitching were thin in Nashville on Tuesday night.
Indiana Hoosiers 5, Vanderbilt Commodores 13:
Inning by inning details in the Live Game Blog | Box Score
Given the Sunday problems with strike-throwing, pitching coach Dustin Glant and head coach Jeff Mercer elected to start veteran right Seti Manase. Manase is a proven strike thrower but has been hit pretty hard lately. That trend continued on Tuesday night. Manase faced all 9 batters in the Commodore order in the first inning and all but one put the ball in play. The one not put in play was a hit-by-pitch on a 1-2 count. Six hits though lead to six runs and the Hoosiers were in a massive hole to start the game. Manase did manage to complete the inning thanks to a great outfield assisted double play out of the arm of right fielder Nick Mitchell who gunned down a would-be tagger at the plate for a much-needed inning-ending double play.
Indiana did most of its offensive damage in the top of the fourth inning taking advantage of a couple of Vandy Boy errors to score 4 runs (3 unearned). Offensively the Hoosiers were lead by Carter Mathison who reached in 4 of 5 plate appearances thanks to three walks and a very scary hit-by-pitch. Mathison was plunked in the back of the neck and was removed from the game for concussion evaluation. Freshman Andrew Wiggins pinch ran for Mathison and came around to score one of the Hoosiers five runs on the evening. In accordance with new NCAA rules, Mathison was able to re-enter in the bottom of the inning. Freshman Jasen Oliver got his first college hit late in the game.
The Hoosiers, down 8-4, gave those runs back up in the bottom of the fourth. Eli Shaw only threw 19 of his 39 pitches for strikes and walked three Commodores, giving up four runs on just one hit.
The other three pitchers who threw for Indiana showed some promise. Coming off a disastrous outing against Troy, Grant Holderfield looked more like the pitcher we remembered from his Freshman year, striking out 4 in two innings of work. He gave up a two-run homer on what looked like a really well placed slider. That was the only damage in his two frames. Redshirt Freshman Jacob Vogel pitched into and out of a jam in his one inning of work.
The real highlight of the night was freshman lefty Ryan Rushing. Rushing got the last nine outs, allowing only one run while striking out three. Rushing was someone we liked when we saw him in the fall. As the pitching staff continues to struggle it is vitally important that new options for key innings emerge from outside the currently trusted weekend guys.
Indiana falls to 9-7 and returns to Bloomington Wednesday at 5pm ET for a second midweek game, this time against Illinois State.