Indiana baseball will look to continue its winning ways Wednesday when it hosts Kent State.
The Hoosiers are riding an eight-game winning streak after pulling off a sweep of Canisius, a road win against Indiana State, and a sweep of Iowa from this last weekend.
Once again, Indiana will be in the friendly confines of Bart Kaufman Field where they’ve been at their best. The Hoosiers are undefeated at home thus far on the season at 9-0.
Everything is clicking for Indiana right now too. Both the hitting and pitching have been excellent.
The Hoosiers’ bats are hot and are putting up an absurd number of runs. In the Iowa series, Indiana outscored the Hawkeyes 23-4 and in the winning streak they’ve averaged over 11 runs per game.
The pitching is really turning the corner too. Senior Friday starter Pauly Milto has been consistent as always, but Saturday starter and junior Tanner Gordon has really turned it on as of late.
Gordon had his best outing of the season when he went seven innings, giving up three runs, a run, and struck out 12 in a winning effort.
With that being said, let’s take an inside look at Kent State.
Examining the Golden Flashes
Kent State has had an up-and-down season thus far with a 9-11 record. Just a season ago they were a power going 40-18 on the year, winning the MAC conference and played in an NCAA Regional.
Despite the losing record this season, Kent State actually is 3-0 against Big Ten opponents this season. They beat Michigan State and Northwestern twice. All three of those wins were decided by six runs or more as well.
Hitting
Like the Hoosiers, Kent State is a talented team from the plate and are putting up just under six runs per game. The Golden Flashes are a good hitting team, but sophomore outfielder Ben Carew and senior catcher Pete Schuler stand far above the rest of the roster.
Carew has elevated into a starring role for the team after being more of a reserve piece a season ago. He isn’t much of a power hitter, with only four extra base hits on the season and no home runs, but he does a great job of making contact. Carew is hitting .373 with 13 RBIs on the season. He also has drawn six walks and has a slugging percentage of .427.
Schuler supplements Carew with the power in his bat as he is tied as the team leader in home runs with four. Schuler has a .338 batting average with 17 RBIs, a .571 slugging percentage and has walked eight times.
Pitching
Kent State, like Indiana, likes to use their midweek games to experiment with a number of arms and typically range between four to six pitchers used in the game.
Some consistent midweek pitchers used by the Golden Flashes include:
- Senior John Schreiber (20.1 IP, 15 Ks, 5.75 ERA)
- Freshman Trevor Pittman (14.1 IP, 14 Ks, 3.14 ERA)
- Freshman Peyton Deats (9.2 IP, 4 Ks, 5.59 ERA)
- Freshman Max Rippl (8 IP, 8 Ks, 2.25 ERA)
- Senior Pavin Parks (7 IP, 6 Ks, 0.00 ERA)
- Senior Chris Martin (6 IP, 6 Ks, 3.00 ERA)
It should be expected that none of the guys would go more than three innings and many of them would only pitch about one.
