Following a winless weekend in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Indiana baseball (1-3) returned home with something to prove Tuesday, as they faced Bradley University (1-3) in a midweek non-conference matchup. The Hoosiers delivered for the home faithful, defeating Bradley 15-3 in seven innings.
To say that Indiana’s bats broke out in a big way would be a major understatement. The Hoosiers’ 14 hits Tuesday matched their hit total from the entire series against North Carolina.
Indiana got off to a hot start, as two batters into the game, sophomore Hogan Denny belted a two-run homer to left field. In his very next at-bat, Denny hit another two-run shot to nearly the same part of the ballpark. Coincidentally, both home runs were 427 feet, and both came with Will Moore as the runner on first base.
Denny has been Indiana’s best hitter so far this season. He reached base four times Tuesday to raise his season on-base percentage to .611. The sophomore also made his first collegiate start behind the plate, after junior T.J. Schuyler caught the first three games.
“Just being able to get behind the plate today in live game action was super fun,” Denny said after the game.
The Hoosiers went deep two other times. Sophomore Cooper Malamazian rocketed one into the bullpen in the bottom of the fifth.
In the bottom of the sixth, preseason All-American Jake Hanley hit one high into the air in left field that Bradley left fielder Landon Lowe lost in the lights. The 6-foot-6, 241-pound first baseman circled his way around the basepaths for an inside-the-park home run.
While Indiana will certainly welcome and embrace the power surplus that came Tuesday, head coach Jeff Mercer emphasized that relying on the long ball is not a successful long-term plan.
“Instant offense is nice. But not always relying on it is a key focal point for us,” Mercer said after the game. “We’ve done a pretty good job so far of figuring out ways to get on base that don’t revolve around the home run.”
While it was the sophomores leading the way offensively, Indiana also got a spark at the bottom of their lineup from a couple of freshmen.
Left-fielder Cal Gates picked up his first two collegiate hits after struggling over the weekend. Infielder Landen Fry pinch hit for Aiden Stewart in the bottom of the fourth inning and took full advantage, going 2-for-2 while also driving in two runs and making a nice play defensively at second base.
Gates and Fry certainly earned themselves more playing time with their performances Tuesday, and expect to see their roles increase as the season goes on.
While Indiana’s bats stole all the headlines, the pitching staff was just as much of a bright spot for the Hoosiers.
Indiana decided to go with a bullpen game. Six Hoosier pitchers saw action, with none of them giving up more than one run.
“We’ve worked a lot over the winter and early spring to be comfortable with every single arm we’ve got,” Denny said on catching multiple different pitchers Tuesday night.
RHP Reagan Rivera was used as the opener, and pitched a scoreless top of the first. It was a nice bounceback for the graduate student from Coppin State, who gave up eight earned runs in 1.1 innings in his first appearance last Friday.
The win went to LHP Conner Linn, who was the one Hoosier to work multiple innings. Linn, who took the loss in game two of the North Carolina series, only gave up one unearned run in his two innings of work.
Two freshmen arms also made their Indiana debuts. RHP Ivan Mastalski gave up a run in his one inning of work, but also fanned two batters. RHP Kellen English reached as high as 96 miles-per-hour on the radar, as he worked a scoreless sixth inning.
The Hoosiers will not play again at Bart Kaufman Field until Big Ten play starts on the first weekend of March. This weekend, they will head down to Jacksonville, Florida to play in the Live Like Lou Jacksonville Baseball Classic. They will face No. 2 LSU Friday, Central Florida Saturday and Notre Dame on Sunday.
