Indiana left-handed pitcher Conner Linn took the mound Tuesday night against Ball State, ready to kick off the game for the Hoosiers in an opening role. But his outing wouldn’t last long.
The Cardinals shelled the graduate transfer from Northern Kentucky for six hits and four earned runs, failing to record more than two outs before being pulled.
In a four-run hole, the Hoosiers could have accepted defeat.
“It would’ve been really easy to roll over,” head coach Jeff Mercer said. “It would’ve been really easy to say, ‘Poor pity us, I can’t believe this happened,’ and just kind of sleepwalked the rest of the game.”
But the Hoosiers didn’t, picking up a 6-4 win that Mercer said defined what he wants his program to be.
“This was a cultural win.”
A cultural win which came in one of the stranger baseball games you’ll ever see. After the teams exchanged four-run opening frames, both bullpens held their own. No more runs would score until the bottom of the seventh, when Landen Fry brought Jake Hanley in to score on a throwing error by Cardinals third baseman Ryan Muizelaar.
Fry would score two batters later after Will Moore snuck a ground ball through the right side of the infield to create more cushion.
The offense had done their job. Now, it was up to a bullpen which, Mercer admitted, hasn’t always been able to execute properly.
But not tonight.
Overall, five bullpen arms combined to record the final 25 outs, the highest number for an Indiana bullpen in over three years.
“Our whole mindset was just go after guys, attack,” reliever Kaden Jacobi said.
Ivan Mastalski was first out of the pen, taking over from Linn. The freshman got through 3.1 innings of work without a scratch, impressing both his head coach and his teammates with his stuff, allowing just two base runners into scoring position and striking out a pair.
“He’s been a dog for us all year,” Jacobi said of Mastalski. “As a freshman, it takes a lot mentally to go out there…and put up zeros like that.”
Jacobi followed Mastalski and recorded two scoreless frames of his own. Kellen English did the same in his sole inning of the night.
The wheels flirted with coming off in the eighth with freshman Xavier Carrera, who wound up putting the tying run on first base.
Point Loma transfer Michael Sarhatt inherited the precarious situation, and made it worse before making anything better by walking his first batter to load the bases with only one out.
In earlier games this season, Sarhatt may have folded. The Indiana bullpen has been prone to collapsing all too often.
But not tonight.
The Belmont, California native shoved a high fastball past Brayden Huebner to escape the jam, giving the Hoosiers a lifeline. As Jacobi later said, “that saved the game.”
Sarhatt finished the job in the ninth inning, striking out back-to-back hitters before giving up back-to-back walks. Even with the go-ahead run at the plate, the cold Tuesday night air seemed to have already decided the Hoosiers’ fate. Sarhatt simply wouldn’t be denied, inducing the game-ending fielder’s choice to earn his first save as a Hoosier and clinch an important non-conference victory.
The past week has been ideal for the Hoosiers. Mercer’s squad has won three of their last four as they seem to have figured things out. After a slow start, the squad is responding exactly how Mercer wants them to.
“I can be frustrated and field a ground ball,” Mercer said of his message to the team as they rode the wave of a difficult start. “I can be frustrated and execute a pitch. Just because I’m frustrated, it didn’t go my way to start, doesn’t mean I can’t respond in a positive way.”
After a 7-12 start to the season which included late-game collapses and close losses to some of the nation’s top teams, Indiana is now 13-19, a result of their ability to maintain positivity and keep moving forward.
“They care so much,” Mercer said of the group he sees come to work every day. “They’re coachable, they play so hard…that makes you really proud and really happy as a coach.”
The work continues for the Hoosiers, who still have ground to make up in the Big Ten. That begins with a trip to College Park this weekend to take on a beatable Maryland squad.
But they’re not focusing on the opponent so much. Right now, it’s about embracing the process and not making too many changes.
“The process is working,” Moore said. “Showing up at the field every day, same attitude, same mentality.
