Rain holds off as IU beats Valparaiso

On a gloomy, rainy day, the Hoosiers found a three-hour period where the spring showers held off just long enough to play nine innings of baseball. \nIU survived a ninth-inning rally from Valparaiso to pick up the victory 6-4, and improve its record to 16-7 on the season. \nThe Hoosiers survived three errors and a couple of mental mistakes. \n"We made more mental mistakes than we usually do today," IU coach Bob Morgan said. "Our mental approach to the game was not as well disciplined as it usually is, but we were able to hang on and get the win."\nMorgan gave a lot of credit to the University grounds crew and the coaching staff for getting the field ready to play in the unfavorable conditions. Before the game, the players didn't know if the game was still going to be playing, perhaps causing the mental lapses. \n"Maybe it was because we didn't know if we were going to play, but still, when the game starts, you have to be ready to go," Morgan said. \nIn the game, IU had nine hits, led by senior Seth Bynum's three. Freshman Matt Saba picked up the victory, giving up no earned runs, to improve his record to 5-0 on the season. \nBynum was happy to get the victory, but agreed with his coach the team needs to improve on their mental mistakes. \n"Like coach always says, we played like mental midgets today," Bynum said. "But we got the win and that is all that really matters as long as we don't make those mistakes any more."\nJunior Joe Kemp, who had two hits on the day, also emphasized the importance of the victory heading into the Big Ten season this weekend, and also the need to cut down on errors. \n"It always means a lot to get a win, we needed this heading into the start of the Big Ten season," Kemp said. "But we did make some stupid mistakes today with base running and throwing the ball away that we need to cut down on."\nThe Hoosiers start Big Ten play Friday with the opening game of a four game series at Northwestern. \nMorgan was happy the team was able to get this game in to get the team ready for conference play. \n"I felt it was very important to get this game in today," Morgan said. "For reasons that were shown today, we needed to play before playing a good Northwestern team."\n-- Contact staff writer Alex Witteveld at pawittev@indiana.edu.