Hoosiers fall again in weekend series

After losing two of three games to Eastern Kentucky this weekend at Sembower Field, the baseball team has lost every weekend series in the 2001 season.\nThe Hoosiers began the three-game set with a doubleheader Saturday against the Colonels. In the first seven-inning game on the day, the Hoosiers hit two home runs -- one of which was a grand slam -- but came up three runs short, losing 9-6.\nIU scored first when redshirt freshman left fielder Mark Calkins hit an RBI groundout in the second. Senior second baseman Dan Haegele added another run for the Hoosiers in the third with his first home run of the season. \nJunior left hander Brad Edwards took to the hill for IU and was cruising until the fifth, when the IU defense fell apart, committing three errors in one inning to give EKU a 4-2 lead. Sophomore right hander Nick Vitielliss relieved Edwards, but could not stop the Colonels as they scored five more runs, making the deficit 9-2. \nSophomore third baseman Vasili Spanos added a grand slam in the sixth, but it wasn't enough as the Hoosiers fell in game one. Edwards took his fifth loss of the season after going 4 1/3 innings, allowing two earned runs, four walks and striking out four.\nSpanos expressed his frustration, saying it doesn't matter what he does individually in the game, but if the team wins or not.\n"It's horrible," Spanos said. "I would rather take away anything, any one thing that I did if we could win, but that's not how baseball is. We came up a little bit short."\nIn Game 2, EKU continued the scoring it started in Game 1, building a 4-1 lead in the third. IU battled back to knot the score at four in the fourth with junior first baseman Gibran Hamdan's three-run shot over the centerfield fence. \nHaegele added his second home run of the day, hitting a two-run shot in the sixth. Senior catcher Kevin O'Brien had a two-run double later in the inning, giving the Hoosiers the 8-5 victory. Senior right-hander Nick Otte threw his third complete game of the season, giving up four earned runs, one walk and striking out four.\nSunday's finale was much of the same, as IU fell for the second time of the weekend to the Colonels, 9-8. Like the doubleheader Saturday, EKU built a 3-0 lead over the Hoosiers when junior shortstop Kiley Vaughn hit a solo shot in the first, and senior right fielder Gabe Thomas added a two-run bomb in the second. \nIU closed the gap when the EKU centerfielder committed an error on junior shortstop Eric Blakeley's fly ball, allowing Haegele to score. Spanos then added a two-run homer to left to tie the score at three. \nIU took a 5-3 lead in the fifth when Haegele's single scored Calkins. After stealing second, Haegele was brought in by Blakeley's single to center.\nStarter sophomore right hander Jacob Cary, junior Zach Otte and sophomore Ryan Smith struggled, allowing nine runs, eight earned. IU rallied for two runs in the bottom of the ninth, but it wasn't enough as the Colonels won their second game of the series. \n"Basically, (this weekend) has been similar to our season," coach Bob Morgan said. "We're just a little bit short. There were a few errors, a few plays where we just need to minimize mistakes and maximize our offensive opportunities and minimize our defensive lapses."\nPitching coach Jeff Calcaterra said the defensive problems the Hoosiers faced shouldn't of had an effect on his pitching staff, but that wasn't the case in the two loses.\n"They can't allow for things behind them -- defensively or caused by an umpire -- to effect what they need to do," Calcaterra said. "Their job is to go out there, throw strikes, set the tempo of the game, and it doesn't change. It just takes some kids with some experience and a little baseball savvy to be able to handle those type of things mentally, because it's more mental then it is physical"