Hoosiers avoid series sweep

The Big Ten conference has not been kind to the IU baseball team so far this season. After defeating Northwestern April 2, the Hoosiers went on a six-game losing streak in conference play. This past weekend IU lost the first three games in its series against Minnesota, but was able to pick up the win in Sunday's finale and end the Golden Gophers' seven-game winning streak in Big Ten play.\n"We started off pretty bad," said senior pitcher Brian Lortz, who started game one of Saturday's doubleheader for the Hoosiers. "The hitting is usually there for us, so we need the pitching and defense to play well."\nDespite the three losses, the Hoosier pitching staff had strong outings from several players, including freshman Chris McCombs, who picked up his second career victory after giving up only two earned runs in four innings of relief Sunday. Junior pitcher Josh Lewis also gave the Hoosiers a strong outing, lasting seven and one-third innings in the first game of the series. \n"I caught a couple bad breaks here and there," Lewis said. "Overall I felt pretty good though."\nIU coach Bob Morgan used only two pitchers in each of the first three games of the series and three in the finale. The Hoosier bullpen surrendered only four earned runs in the series, which included senior Steve Nielsen's series finale save in three innings of shutout relief.\n"Overall this weekend wasn't too good," Nielsen said. "But we were able to pick it up defensively a little bit and the bullpen did a good job."\nThe Hoosier offense sputtered at times, however junior center fielder Reggie Watson, junior designated hitter Zach Boswell and sophomore shortstop Josh Richardson kept their hot bats going, collecting a combined seven hits and five RBI in Sunday's victory.\nJunior left fielder Jay Brant had his hit streak snapped at 19 games, after he was forced to leave game one of the series due to an injury. The 5-0 loss marked the first time the Hoosiers have been shutout all season. \nBefore returning to Big Ten play, IU will face off against Miami of Ohio Wednesday afternoon at Sembower Field.\n"They are at the top of their conference right now," Lewis said. "So it should be a good game."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Matt Mattucci at mmattucc@indiana.edu.