Indiana dropped its second consecutive game of the week, this time on the road. The Hoosiers fell to No. 24 Nebraska 6-5 on Friday in Lincoln. The offense pushed back into the game late, but couldn’t come back to win game one of the series.
There is no denying that Indiana baseball would rather play every game on its schedule at Bart Kaufman Field. Under Jeff Mercer, Indiana has lost double-digit home games in a season just once. Those numbers provide no issues or reason of concern. Concern begins when you look at Indiana’s track record on the road under Mercer.
The Hoosiers have had just two seasons where they are over .500 on the road. This season, the struggles have been apparent early on. With Friday’s loss, Indiana is now 4-9 on the road this season, and is yet to win a series opener away from home.
At times on Friday, there were signs of things turning to a more positive direction. Then there were other times where Indiana didn’t get beat, but beat itself. The Hoosiers had three defensive errors, two wild pitches, and also hit three batters.
Two of the hit-by-pitches were with the bases loaded, and a balk by Indiana’s starter, Reagan Rivera, allowed another Husker run to score.
Rivera threw 3 2/3 innings, allowing just three hits, and only two earned runs in his start. Five runs scored in Rivera’s outing due to the defensive errors the Hoosiers had. Indiana ended the fourth inning down 5-0.
The Indiana offense tried climbing back into the game in the sixth and seventh innings. The Hoosiers pushed across four runs in the top of the sixth thanks to an Owen ten Oever RBI single, and a Hogan Denny 2-RBI single to left. Another run would score on a wild pitch in the frame.
After allowing a run in the bottom of the sixth, the Hoosiers cut the lead back to one on a Cole Decker RBI groundout in the top of the seventh inning. That was the last run that would be scored by either side in the series opener.
The Cornhuskers would hold Indiana scoreless the rest of the way to take game one of the three game set 6-5.
Cooper Malamazian and Denny were the offensive bright spots for the Hoosiers in game one, both collecting a pair of hits, with Denny driving in two.
Indiana looks to even up the series tomorrow afternoon, with lefty Tony Neubeck set to start game two. Game two is slated to start at 3 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, in Lincoln.
