The NCAA Tournament kicked off around the country Friday, with the IU baseball team among the 64 teams taking their first steps down what they hope is the road to Omaha, Nebraska, and the College World Series.
In its first game of the Austin, Texas, regional, IU lost 10-3 to the Texas A&M Aggies.
It was a pitchers' duel early in the game, with both teams remaining scoreless through the first three innings.
Texas A&M sophomore starting pitcher John Doxakis pitched well for the Aggies, finishing his day with six dominant innings of work. The Houston native struck out 12 hitters and gave up just one unearned run on a single hit.
IU junior pitcher Jonathan Stiever started strong for IU, but he couldn’t survive a disastrous fourth inning. With two outs in the inning, the Hoosier ace gave up seven runs on six hits, eventually being pulled from the game without ending the inning. Stiever struck out just one batter and walked two before being taken out of the game.
Following the Aggie outburst of runs, the IU bullpen trio of sophomore Andrew Saalfrank, senior Brian Hobbie and senior B.J. Sabol were able to limit the Aggie lineup to just three runs through the eighth inning, giving up one run each. Sophomore Cal Krueger pitched in the top of the ninth inning for IU, giving up just one hit.
IU couldn’t get on the scoreboard until the sixth inning, when sophomore shortstop Jeremy Houston scored from third base as sophomore outfielder Matt Gorski reached safely on a throwing error.
One of the few bright spots on the day for the Hoosiers was junior third baseman Luke Miller. The third team All-Big Ten selection provided most of the offense the Hoosiers could muster on the day, hitting a pair of solo home runs, the first in the seventh inning and then another in the bottom of the ninth.
Following the loss, the Hoosiers will be placed in the loser's bracket of the double-elimination regional. They’ll face Texas Southern, which lost Friday night to Texas, at 2:30 p.m. Saturday in an elimination game.
Auston Matricardi
