Indiana’s Sunday red uniforms have not been kind to the Hoosiers this season. The team entered the rubber match against Rutgers with an 0-2 record in Sunday home games this season.
In dire need of that fortune changing to win just their second Big Ten series of the year, the Hoosiers pitching staff shut down the Scarlet Knights en route to a 8-2 win to take the three-game set and improve to 12-19 on the year.
The previous two games of the weekend, Indiana used a combined five pitchers, setting itself up nicely with plenty of depth and flexibility going into the series finale.
Brayton Thomas, the usual Sunday starter, set the tone right away. As head coach Jeff Mercer put it, he battled. Between PitchCom issues and allowing five free passes, Thomas fought through.
“He settled in and responded,” the head coach said. “That’s what you have to have from a guy when you give him the ball first…I’m very proud.”
Mercer praised the Fort Wayne, Indiana native’s competitive spirit, saying he wanted to keep going.
“I thought he was going to punch me when I went out there to take the ball from him,” Mercer joked. “You want that [competitiveness] from a guy.”
Thomas started off with three innings of no-hit ball before surrendering a base knock. He struck out five Scarlet Knights across 4.2 innings of work, leaving in a two-out, first-and-third situation.
“That’s my inning and my guy’s on base, so I feel responsible for those runs if they do score,” Thomas said.
Thomas didn’t talk his way into another batter. Instead, Mercer went to his bullpen, which has proven to be unreliable at times this season. Sunday’s story was different, though. Jacob Vogel toed the rubber in the fifth inning, retiring six of the seven batters he faced. Jackson Yarberry slammed the door, getting the final eight outs.
Together, the trio held Rutgers to two runs on five hits. For a pitching staff that’s been the ultimate wildcard this year, there was no funny business at all this weekend.
On the offensive side, the Hoosiers lineup put together a complete outing. All nine hitters reached base with eight recording a base hit. Brayden Ricketts got the scoring started with a sky-high solo home run which cleared the right field wall with plenty of help from the wind, but only one more of Indiana’s 13 total hits went for extra bases.
After a Saturday night in which the bats failed to show a “killer instinct,” as Mercer said, and put the game away, a four-run sixth inning helped break Sunday’s game open. Will Moore and Hogan Denny both had RBI singles to bring three runs around followed by a Caleb Koskie sacrifice fly.
“I liked our ability to advance the game,” Mercer said of his offense continuing to keep at it despite building a commanding lead, something they did well on Friday and not as well Saturday.
Still, the Hoosiers won their second conference series of the season. In his eight years leading the program, Mercer is yet to lose multiple Big Ten home series in the same season.
An off day on Monday is on deck before the Hoosiers host Ball State for a midweek matchup on Tuesday. First pitch is scheduled for 6 p.m. ET.
