EVANSVILLE, Ind. – After dropping five straight games, Indiana baseball made the trip southbound on I-69 to take on in-state foe Evansville.
Indiana entered Tuesday's matchup in need of some consistency, something that has been lacking throughout the first half of the season. One positive note of history that was on Indiana’s side was the 4-1 record in midweek games this season.
That positive note of history did not matter, the Purple Aces walked off the Hoosiers after trailing 4-0 and beat Indiana 5-4.
Those four runs would all be scored in the first four innings, with no production coming in the last seven frames.
Head coach Jeff Mercer said the offense just hasn’t done enough at times to help balance success with the pitching staff.
“Pretty often, we haven't done enough offensively to be able to give us an avenue to be able to manage the bullpen and navigate that,” Mercer said. “You’re gonna have to offensively open enough of a window that you don’t have to pitch perfect.”
The Hoosier offense got out to a quick start, jumping out to an early 2-0 lead within the first three batters. Hogan Denny doubled and was later driven in by Jake Hanley who hit a 444-foot home run to dead center field.
No runs would come across to score for either side until the fourth inning. Landen Fry drove in Cole Decker in the top of the frame to make it 3-0 Indiana. Decker reached four times in the game and extended his on-base streak to 13 games.
Owen ten Oever continued his hot hitting to push the Hoosier lead to 4-0 with his RBI double to left. Fry scored on the play due to obstruction by the Evansville catcher blocking the plate.
The Hoosiers were tasked with piecing together bullpen arms to get through the Tuesday matchup.
Freshman Ivan Mastalski threw two scoreless frames to start for the Cream and Crimson on the mound. Reagan Rivera and Xavier Carrera each pitched a scoreless frame, keeping Indiana’s lead at four through four innings.
Kellen English ran into the first real trouble on the mound for the Hoosiers. The freshman walked the first batter he faced before allowing him to reach second on a wild pitch.
English then struck out the next two Evansville hitters, before giving up an RBI single to Purple Aces catcher Spike Magill.
Evansville later tied the game in the home half of the seventh inning. After getting Indiana out of a bases loaded jam in the sixth, Kaden Jacobi went out to start the seventh inning. Jacobi did not have the same success that he had in the sixth.
The graduate student right hander gave up a double and induced a fielder's choice, before allowing back-to-back ground rule doubles that reduced the Indiana lead to one.
Redshirt junior Jacob Vogel came in to try and help escape the inning with the lead, but a 12-pitch battle with right fielder Ryan Seddon ended with an RBI double to right to tie the game at four.
The Hoosiers were unable to plate any runs in the following two innings, putting the pressure on Jackson Yarberry to hold the Purple Aces scoreless to force a 10th inning.
It wasn’t pretty, but he got the job done. A leadoff single, then a sacrifice fly put the winning run on second base with just one out. Yarberry then struck out the next two ensuing batters to push the game to extras.
Indiana had a prime opportunity to take the lead in the top of the 10th inning with the bases loaded and one out. However, Landen Fry grounded into an inning ending double play to put the Hoosier threat to bed.
The score held until the bottom of the 11th inning, when Tate Deal hit a pinch-hit, walk-off single to propel Evansville to a 5-4 victory.
Another loss for Indiana pushes the losing streak to six, in a pivotal stretch of the season, the Hoosiers have to turn it around fast if they want a chance at the Big Ten Tournament, let alone the NCAA Tournament.
Mercer said despite the slow streak, that he has no regrets on the way things have shaken.
“I wouldn’t trade the decisions that we made,” Mercer said postgame. “I wouldn’t trade to trust a bunch of young guys to grow up together and play.”
That group of young guys have plenty of season left, a season where so many games have been close and just not gone their way.
Indiana is now 0-7 in one-run games this year. If even half of those go the other way, the feeling around the program and the season would be completely different.
Now all eyes turn to this weekend for a three-game series with Rutgers at Bart Kaufman Field.
