Hoosier offense takes on Ohio State's conference-best defense

Coming off a 16-2 thrashing of IU-Southeast on Wednesday, the IU baseball team packs its bags for a four-game set against Ohio State this weekend. \nSo far this season, IU has established a dismal 4-12 record against the Big Ten. The Hoosiers have finished with one win and three losses in each of the last four conference series games they have played. The 20-14 Buckeyes are coming off a doubleheader sweep against Central Michigan. OSU has a Big Ten leading .971 fielding percentage and is second in the conference with a 3.80 ERA, despite its 4-9 Big Ten record and .290 team batting average. \nBehind the ERA, the Buckeyes have two young pitchers in Cory Luebke and Dan DeLucia, ranked third and fourth in the Big Ten with ERAs of 2.58 and 2.83, respectively. Teams are hitting a cold .244 against the freshman Luebke, and the sophomore \nDeLucia has a team-leading 33 strikeouts.\nThe Big Ten's best defense will be facing an IU team that leads the conference with a .329 batting average. The Hoosiers also top the league in runs (306), hits (462), doubles (78) and stolen bases (66). Junior second baseman Jay Brant leads the Big Ten with 59 runs, 66 hits, 14 doubles and 22 stolen bases. \nThe biggest surprise this past week for the Hoosiers has been the bat of sophomore infielder Josh Richardson. His .439 batting average is the fourth highest in the conference and his 25 hits are second overall. Richardson has successfully hit in 11 of his last 12 games. \nLast year the Hoosiers were swept by OSU in a four-game series in Bloomington. In those games, IU put up only 12 runs to the Buckeyes' 36. IU also split its four-game set against OSU in Columbus in 2003, which included a 13-12 loss in eight innings. \nThe Hoosiers and Buckeyes square off starting at 6:35 p.m. on Friday April 29. The teams will play a doubleheader beginning at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday and a finale at 1:05 p.m. on Sunday.