Hoosiers hope to maintain record

IU baseball has already dominated one NAIA opponent this year, but now it's Indiana Wesleyan's turn to take on the Hoosiers.\nThe Hoosiers will face off against the Wildcats at 3 p.m. today at Sembower Field.\nIU is coming off a doubleheader sweep of Taylor University last week, and hopes to improve to 3-0 on the season.\nIn the previous 10 meetings between the two teams, IU has won all 10 games including last year's 11-10 victory over IWU. \nBut last season's score does not represent the series as a whole. IU has outscored Indiana Wesleyan 75-20 overall, and the Hoosiers plan to use this game as a tune-up for the rest of the season.\nKentucky Wesleyan swept Indiana Wesleyan in their three-game series over the weekend, outscoring the Wildcats 34-7, leaving a good possibility for the Hoosiers to repeat their performance from last week.\nIU used an offensive explosion to crush Taylor 15-0 and 14-1 last week. One of the offensive catalysts was senior Eric Blakeley who set career highs with seven RBI and nine total bases.\n"Our philosophy is that if we see a good first pitch, then just go after it," Blakeley said. "It's early, so we just want to get out and get some at-bats."\nBut after having its three-game series rained out against Bethune-Cookman in Florida this past weekend, IU just wishes that the weather cooperates enough today to help prepare for this weekend's series versus East Tennessee State. \n"We're just hoping that we get to play," coach Bob Morgan said. "Our kids are biting at the bit to get out and play again. We just want to go out and get back to where we were."\nMorgan said the key to the game is to have all facets of come together.\n"We just need to field groundballs, our pitchers need to throw strikes and our hitters need to stay aggressive at the plate."\nLast week's doubleheader showcased some solid pitching. Seven IU pitchers combined to allow one run on nine hits in the two games. \nSenior southpaw Zach Otte mowed down four Taylor batters in just two innings of work, and will start on the mound for IU today. Otte said he is the type of pitcher to go right after hitters, and he expects to do that against the Wildcats.\n"We just have to go out and pitch our game," Otte said. "Right now we're still in the situation where we have a few guys that have pitched, but the first couple of times out we're just trying to get our cleats dirty a little bit"