Win worth waiting for

The successful baseball formula of quality pitching and timely hitting added up to a 4-1 IU victory over Butler on a sunny Wednesday afternoon at Sembower Field. The Hoosiers' (7-1) bats started slowly, but three timely extra base hits combined with solid pitching provided the winning margin for Coach Bob Morgan's club.\nAfter two cancellations, IU was finally able to open its home season. And Morgan said he was happy with what he saw.\n"I thought it was a good ball game," Morgan said. "It was a good game to watch. We hit two home runs. There were no errors on either side, and there was some good defense being played. It was just a good college baseball game."\nFreshman Derek Hibbs (1-0) got the nod and the victory for IU in the first start of his career. Hibbs didn't take long to get into trouble as Butler loaded the bases with one out in the first inning. Hibbs showed grit and battled back by striking out Butler senior Rex Eaton and getting senior Tim Marks to fly out to left to end the Bulldog rally.\nThe game remained scoreless until the bottom of the third when IU struck paydirt with timely two-out hitting. With no one on and Bulldog senior Aaron Phillips on the mound, junior Seth Bynum lined a hard single to left and senior Chad Coder followed with a lined single to center. Sophomore Corby Heckman's bloop hit to center plated two with Coder beating a late throw to the plate to put IU on top 2-0.\nIU's two-run lead didn't last long as Marks homered deep to left-center in the top of the fourth to cut the score to 2-1.\nAlthough Phillips (0-2) was credited with the loss, he proved tough to handle all afternoon for Hoosier batters. Through his eight-inning complete game, Phillips scattered nine hits with a solid mix of fastballs and breaking balls. Morgan said he was impressed with Phillips.\n"Give their pitcher credit," Morgan said. "He threw a lot of strikes and didn't walk anybody. He threw a nice game."\nOnly two IU players were able to break through the remainder of the contest. In the bottom of the seventh, senior Vasili Spanos homered to right center for his second of the season to extend IU's lead to 3-1. Then, junior catcher Cody Wargo bounced one off the top of the scoreboard in right-center for his first homer of the season, ending the scoring at 4-1.\nWargo said he got a pitch to hit.\n"I fouled one off earlier that I thought was right on," Wargo said. "He threw a pitch I could handle and I hit it and it felt good. It was a slider that hung over the plate. I just went with it, and happened to hit it pretty good."\nThe pitchers Wargo was catching also performed well. After Hibbs was replaced in the top of the fourth, junior Adam Pegg pitched two innings of scoreless one-hit ball. Converted freshman catcher Chris Hynes pitched the final three innings of shutout ball to earn his first save of his career in only his second appearance. \nHynes said he had good stuff Wednesday.\n"My curveball was just working today and everything else was working," Hynes said. "I threw a fastball strike to get off to a good start with each batter. It's hard to get a base hit when you're behind in the count."\nMorgan said he hopes his club can carry over its performance to today's 3 p.m. game against DePauw.\n"I'm pleased we win a ball game 4-1," Morgan said. "We had nine hits and we hit two out of the yard. It was just a well played game, and I was happy with how we played"