The first two months of Indiana’s season have not gone to plan. The No. 5 team in the Big Ten preseason poll currently sits fifth from bottom in the conference standings after 28 games. Struggles with runners in scoring position have plagued the offense. Starting pitching has been solid, but the bullpen has failed to finish off games time and time again.
As the season enters its latter half, time isn’t on the Hoosiers side. The expectation for head coach Jeff Mercer to bring the program back to the NCAA Tournament after missing out last season isn’t going away. Even with a young core of players who need experience more than anything, or the injuries which have impacted the roster.
After a walkoff loss in Evansville earlier in the week, giving Indiana its sixth straight loss, it didn’t seem like things could get any better for the 2026 Hoosiers.
Then, on a humid and sticky Friday night in early April, everything came together.
Indiana took the first game of the weekend series with Rutgers in dominant fashion, an 11-0 run-rule drubbing of the Scarlet Knights in seven innings, clearly their best performance of the season. Perhaps the best in Mercer’s eight-year tenure.
As the season continues to progress, a performance of this caliber could not have come at a better time.
The skipper’s belief in his team never wavered. He always knew they had this in them.
“That’s how we’re capable of playing,” he said.
Offensively, Indiana put double digits up on the scoreboard for the first time in almost a month. All nine hitters in the lineup recorded a hit. Five had an RBI. The top of the order—Will Moore, Hogan Denny and Jake Hanley—had a home run each.
Collectively, seven of the Hoosiers’ 11 runs came with two outs. They were 3-for-7 with runners in scoring position.
These were not the kind of results Indiana were putting up earlier in the year. Whenever an opportunity to bring runs across the plate arose, the team could never produce the big hit. Promising innings would end with a whimper. Pitchers would have little cushion to work with. Close games would end with Indiana on the wrong side of the scoreline, retrospectively wincing at their abundance of missed chances.
Finally, the lineup picked up Tony Neubeck, Friday night’s starter, allowing him to pitch with freedom. The Missouri transfer tossed six efficient innings of three-hit ball, striking out eight on just 80 pitches. Once he found his groove, he couldn’t be stopped.
Jacob Vogel closed things out in the seventh inning to secure Indiana’s first shutout this season and first over a conference foe since 2022.
Complementary baseball has been hard to come by. But between dominant pitching, clutch offense, smart baserunning and flawless defense, for the first time this season, Indiana proved that Mercer’s belief that this was the caliber they could reach was correct.
Indiana still has plenty of work to do if they are to compete in the postseason. Mercer’s squad is still a spot outside of qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament. An NCAA Tournament bid may already be out of reach. And maybe this was just a flash in the pan. Maybe Indiana will continue this season’s trend of taking game one of a series and drop the next two.
But maybe this is the turning point. The moment when all the frustration from floundering through the first half comes out. When Indiana is reborn. When we see what Mercer knows is possible.
Five Big Ten series remain. Two against the bottom two teams in the conference. One against an Iowa team facing similar struggles to find their footing. One against Illinois, currently holding a 14-14 overall record. In fact, of all the Hoosiers’ remaining opponents, only Louisville (18-13) and Purdue (20-7) are more than two games over .500.
That’s not to say the final stretch won’t be difficult. Anything can happen in college baseball. But the hard part, at least, is over. And if Friday is any indication of what is to come, look out.
