Hoosiers edge Wright State with run in eighth inning

The baseball team headed to Dayton, Oh., for a matchup with the Wright State Raiders in an out of conference battle. In a closely contested battle, IU managed to squeeze out a victory by pushing across the winning run in the eighth inning to win 4-3. The win pushes the Hoosiers' record to 27-8 heading into a big weekend at home.\nThe game started slowly for the Hoosiers, as the team failed to put any runs on the board in the first three innings. The team found itself down 1-0 when it came up to the plate in their half of the fourth inning, and then the offense made a little noise. Sophomore Ryan Donley hit a single that brought home Mark Calkins and would have brought home Joe Kemp as well, but Kemp slipped on the wet grass rounding third and was forced to stay. Wright State came back in the bottom of the inning and retook the lead 2-1, which would stand until the sixth.\nThat's when Vasili Spanos stepped up to the plate. Spanos, a two time Big Ten Player of the week, has been slumping lately, but busted out of the slump big time in the sixth. He cracked a home run over the left field fence, bringing home Calkins and giving IU the lead 3-2. The homer was Spanos' 12th of the year.\nUnfortunately, the Raiders came back with a home run of their own in the bottom half of the inning, and the score was knotted up again 3-3.\nDonley proved to be too much for Wright State on this night, however, as he came up in the eighth with two men on and cracked a hit to the right-center field gap bringing home Calkins again and putting IU up by the winning margin, 4-3. \nJunior Ryan Smith earned his sixth save with a scoreless ninth, and Pat Boucher got the victory with two and two-thirds innings of relief. \nDonley finished the night two for three with two RBIs, and Calkins also went two for three with three runs scored. \nIU next takes the field this weekend for a four game set at home against conference rival Ohio State. The first game is Friday at 3 p.m. at Sembower Field..