After a series win over Minnesota this past weekend, Indiana (10-14) returned to Bart Kaufman Field Tuesday for its fourth game in five days. The Hoosiers welcomed Indiana State (11-13) for the first of two games with the Sycamores this season, who left Bloomington with a 5-4 win behind a three-run top of the eighth inning.
As is typical for most midweeks, both teams went with a bullpen game. Indiana used seven different arms, while Indiana State used a staggering nine different arms to cover the nine innings played. This slowed a Hoosier offense that combined for 15 runs in the first two games of the Minnesota series, and Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer alluded to both the Sycamores’ approach as well as his own team’s lack of execution as to why the offense struggled.
“It’s hard when they’re throwing multiple different arms, but we weren’t as good as we needed to be either,” Mercer said postgame. “We could have also been better offensively to be adjustable to that.”
Despite plating four runs on nine hits, the Hoosiers left nine men on base, including stranding the bases loaded in the bottom of the seventh inning with the chance to add to a 3-2 lead. Indiana State, meanwhile, left seven men on base, but capitalized on opportunities with runners in scoring position to erase several deficits over the course of the evening.
Indiana got on the board early as sophomore Caleb Koskie continued his hot stretch offensively with an RBI double to left, scoring sophomore Hogan Denny. After Tuesday’s game, Koskie’s hit streak now stands at six games, and he has been a consistent bat for the Hoosiers, now taking the cleanup spot in the batting order.
In the bottom of the fourth, Indiana doubled its lead as freshman Landen Fry singled to right, scoring Koskie. However, the Sycamores quickly responded in the following inning, capitalizing on a Hoosier mistake that allowed the frame to continue.
With two outs and a baserunner at second, senior Nomar Garcia sent a grounder to sophomore Cooper Malamazian at third base, but the throw to first base was short and unable to be scooped up by sophomore Jake Hanley, putting runners at the corners for Indiana State. The next two batters, sophomore Andrew Ortiz and junior Carter Beck, both notched RBI singles to tie the game at two runs apiece.
In the bottom of the seventh, Hanley put Indiana back in front with an RBI double to left, scoring freshman Mateo Noto. But Indiana State once again countered, and did so in a way strong enough to take the lead in the top of the eighth inning and keep it the rest of the way.
Two of the first three Sycamore batters reached on walks, and senior Jorge Cartagena took advantage, doubling to left field to tie the game once again. Then, sophomore Mason Roell scored from third on a wild pitch to give Indiana State its first lead of the night, and a sacrifice fly from Colin Sander scored Cartagena to put the Sycamores up two.
In their final at-bat, the Hoosiers cut the deficit to one via a sacrifice fly from Hanley, scoring freshman Owen ten Oever. However, the damage had been done in the eighth, and Indiana found itself on the losing end of a midweek for the first time in 2026. All five of the Sycamore runs came with two outs, which Mercer said simply came down to a lack of execution.
“You present somebody an opportunity, and you get out there, and you do it enough, and you just can’t open the window,” Mercer said. “You give somebody life, you give them an opportunity, and you give somebody freebies like that in both situations.”
The Hoosiers will now head to Lincoln for a crucial three-game set with No. 24 Nebraska as they look to work their way back towards .500 in Big Ten play. Friday’s series opener with the Cornhuskers is scheduled for 7 p.m. Eastern.
