Hoosiers to renew rivalry in midweek game

After going 1-3 last weekend against the defending Big Ten regular season champions, the Hoosier baseball team wants to get back to winning before taking its first conference road trip to Ann Arbor to face Michigan this weekend. The team hopes to take that opportunity against Indiana State at 3 p.m. Wednesday at Sembower Field. \nDespite winning only one game last weekend, the Hoosiers feel they have played well and hope to continue into the one-game series.\n"Offensively we just need to keep with it. (Against Minnesota) we had a lot of hard hit balls that were caught," senior second baseman Dan Haegele said. "We just have to keep with that, keep getting better and go in with the same intensity against Indiana State."\nAfter not facing each other in the 2000 season, the Hoosiers renew the series started in 1905. IU holds a 39-30-1 advantage over ISU, with the Hoosiers winning the last matchup 8-5 in 1999. The Sycamores haven't beaten IU since 1995.\nThe Sycamore staff doesn't allow many runs with a 4.28 ERA, and 6-foot-2 junior righthander Caleb Reger has made 16 appearances out of the bullpen, going 3-4 with a 3.38 ERA, striking out 22 in 24 innings. \nVasili Spanos might provide some of the offense from the four spot in the line-up against the Sycamore staff.\n"It's an in-state rival. A big rival for us, but I don't know much about them," Spanos said. "I do feel good going into the game because we're playing well."\nSpanos has missed some playing time this season because of a foot injury. He made his way back off the bench in the doubleheader against Taylor University and played in all four games against Minnesota. Even with the time off, Spanos is second on the team in RBIs and tied for the lead in home runs.\n"I'm still trying to get my rhythm back in the field, get my footwork back to normal, but other than that I don't think it hurts that much," Spanos said. "I know that I have had good days and bad days. I've struggled sometimes, but then I come back and have a good day." \nSenior outfielder Blake St. Clair leads the team in batting average and is tied with Spanos with four home runs. As a veteran, St. Clair said he wants to show the underclassmen that even though they lost more games than they won, a lot of positive aspects can be taken from last weekend. The Hoosiers were competitive against the team that coach Bob Morgan and Purdue coach Doug Schreiber picked to repeat as Big Ten champions. \n"Sometimes it's hard for some of the young guys to understand that maybe if you go 1-3, sometimes there's positive things you can take out of a loss," St. Clair said. "If you play good, maybe come up a little short or something like that and just to be able to understand that."\nWednesday marks the end of the Hoosiers' 12-game home stand that started March 20. Spanos said that while the team didn't do as well as he would have hoped, the home stand helped players prepare for the rest of the conference season. \n"I think it's always great to play at home whenever you can," Spanos said. "We didn't do as well as we would've liked, but I still think we're playing well. We just need to keep it up, be persistent and get after it"