Offense explodes in IU win

With a seven-run outburst in the first inning, the men's baseball team took command Wednesday afternoon at Sembower Field and never looked back in a 10-1 shelling of Indiana State. \nBesides the success at the bat, IU also saw a career-tying best performance of five innings pitched and six strikeouts by junior starter Zach Otte.\n"Lately, we've been falling behind early in games," senior second baseman Dan Haegle said. "Coming out strong today gave us the confidence we need. When we get ahead early, it carries over to our pitching -- which it did today."\nThings looked considerably more dismal in the top of the first inning. After striking out senior leftfielder Chad Zaucha, Otte surrendered back-to-back hits to senior shortstop Auggie Casson and junior centerfielder Jason Frome. Designated hitter Greg Wear sacrificed to center to bring Casson home, but it was all the scoring the Sycamores would see as Otte worked out of the inning.\n"(Otte) looked really good," Haegle said. "(ISU's) a pretty good team and he kept them off-balance."\nIn the bottom of the first, the Hoosiers exploded. Haegele led off with a single. He was soon joined on base by redshirt sophomore third baseman Nick Evans, who was hit by a pitch, and junior shortstop Eric Blakely, who was walked on four pitches by freshman Sycamores pitcher J.T. Schultz. \nSenior centerfielder Blake St. Clair drove Haegele in with a groundout to first base. Then Schultz's control woes continued as he issued a walk to sophomore designated hitter Vasili Spanos. A base hit by freshman leftfielder Ryan Donley sent Evans across the plate. After giving up a two-RBI single to redshirt freshman rightfielder Mark Calkins, Schultz was replaced.\nSchultz's replacement, freshman Jason Helbling, fared little better. Junior first baseman Gibran Hamdan hit a sacrifice fly to center field to bring home Donley, which would be the only out the sporadic Helbing would get. The Hoosiers ninth batter in the inning, freshman catcher Cody Wargo, was walked. \nSo was Haegele in his second at-bat of the opening frame. Helbing's accuracy spiraled even more out of control as he threw a wild pitch, allowing Calkins to score. The flustered Helbling then surrendered a ground-rule double to Evans, who brought, Wargo home for the Hoosiers seventh run.\nOnce again, the coach changed pitchers, this time going with freshman Matt Zaleski, who ended the inning by forcing Blakely to ground out.\nAfter Otte struck out two in the top of the second, the IU offense was back at it. Blake St. Clair led off the inning with a towering home run over the centerfield fence for his fifth of the year. \n"He left a change-up up (in the strike zone), and I just did what I'm supposed to do," said St. Clair of the home run.\n At this point, Zaleski was able to settle down, as he only surrendered two more hits and struck out five over the next four innings.\nThe bullpen picked up where Otte left off after five innings. Freshman Joe Kemp contributed two no-hit innings with two strikeouts. Freshman Chris Behrens fanned two and gave up one hit in his two-inning stint. \n"We just threw strikes," Kemp said.\nThe Hoosiers offense added two more runs in the bottom of the eighth, as St. Clair picked up another RBI on a sacrifice fly. Senior Rob Stastny also knocked a runner across the plate with his first hit of the season.\nWith the Hoosiers 12-game homestand finished, IU travels to Michigan this weekend for a four-game series. Haegle hopes the pleasant weather the Hoosiers experienced Wednesday follows IU to Ann Arbor.\n"Hopefully some of the warm weather will make its way up to Michigan this week," Haegle said. "Offensively, when it's cold out, you just got to stick with it and score as many runs as you can. Sometimes when it's a cold and windy day, you just have to bunt, hit and run and stuff to get one across. You can't go in with a different mentality or that will just mess your up"