Hoosiers take on struggling Jaguars

Before the baseball team faces 2000 Big Ten champion Minnesota this weekend in Bloomington, the Hoosiers will prepare for the Golden Gophers with a mid-week game against a team that's won less than one fifth of its games.\nEnter IU-Purdue University at Indianapolis, which has won against only St. Louis and Morehead State. In their most recent game, the Jaguars fell to Purdue 10-1 March 21.\nThe Jaguars have lost their last seven games, but the Hoosiers are anxious to get on the field because Sunday's game against Penn State was canceled because of freezing temperatures. The Hoosiers wanted to even the four-game series with the Nittany Lions but weren't given the chance.\nThe Hoosiers (15-9-1, 1-2 Big Ten) will settle for IUPUI (3-13) in a 3 p.m. match-up today at Sembower Field.\n"Every game is a big game for us no matter who it is," freshman outfielder Brian Bucciarelli said. "If we go out and put them away, it's going to be a big-time momentum roll going into Minnesota. We beat them by a bunch of runs, and I think it's going to be good for our team offensively."\nIU's offense had trouble driving in runs against the Nittany Lions. In a 7-1 loss to Penn State Saturday, the Hoosiers stranded eight baserunners and produced one run.\nJunior shortstop Eric Blakeley said the team's offense must be more productive to relieve the struggling pitching staff. The club's earned-run average climbed to 5.19 after allowing Penn State 24 runs in three games.\nBlakeley has been especially powerful against the Jaguars. In a 10-1 win to open last season, he hit two home runs and drove in five runs. He also scored three runs against the Jaguars in 1999.\n"We need people to step up and get key hits to help our pitchers out to keep the game close," Blakeley said. "We want to come out and get a good game in before we play Minnesota, since we didn't play that last game."\nFreshman pitcher Chris Behrens (3-0) was slated to start Sunday's game against Penn State and is expected to pitch against the Jaguars today. After six appearances and four starts, his earned-run average is 1.80. In 15 innings, he has limited opponents to a .222 batting average.\nThe Hoosiers plan to rotate several pitchers in the nine-inning, non-conference game and improve on fundamentals before playing host to the Golden Gophers. IU has lost two of its last three games by an average of eight runs.\n"We wanted to play really bad (Sunday), but as for affecting our team, I don't think it's affected us that much," junior first baseman Gibran Hamdan said. "We're bringing the same intensity all week. We bring the same focus to every game we play"