Student vs. mentor in Miami game

With a 2-6 Big Ten record, the IU baseball team is examining its problems.\nIU coach Bob Morgan said the Hoosiers have not been playing efficient defense. Compound that with a struggling pitching staff, he said, and there are sufficient reasons for the Hoosiers' disappointing conference play in the past two weeks.\nThe one win at Minneapolis came in the final game as the Hoosiers did damage early to the Gophers' starting pitcher, ripping him for four runs in four hits in just two-thirds of an inning. Junior second baseman Jay Brant and junior left fielder Zach Boswell had three hits each. While Brant ended his team-high 19-game hitting streak earlier in the series, he recorded three runs in Sunday's game. Boswell recorded two RBIs and one run. It was Boswell's sacrifice fly in the eighth that brought in Brant and secured the Hoosiers' second Big Ten win of the season. \n"I was seeing the ball real good the whole weekend," Boswell said. "I was just seeing good pitches, and I hit them."\nJunior center fielder Reggie Watson also tallied two runs in the game. Watson currently leads the team with five triples.\n"Every game is important, but going into a Big Ten weekend right now it is important for momentum," Watson said. "If we can get this win and go into Iowa with our heads up, I think everything will be going good for us."\nAfter dropping its second straight Big Ten series 1-3 last week at Minnesota, IU travels to Oxford, Ohio, to face a tough Miami University of Ohio team. The Redhawks are at the top of the East division of the Mid-American Conference and are riding a six-game winning streak, including their first series sweep this year when they took three games against Birmingham-Southern College.\nWednesday's game will be especially meaningful for the Red Hawks. The team will sport their black jerseys, which are normally reserved for road games, in memory of three students who died in a campus fire Sunday.\nThe game also has a student-mentor flavor to it -- Miami head coach Tracy Smith spent two seasons under Morgan before heading to Oxford. Smith was the pitching coach at IU and guided the Hoosier hurlers to their lowest ERA in the Big Ten in 1996.\nAlthough IU maintains an advantage in the all-time series against Miami, the Redhawks have taken the last two games, including IU's 10-5 loss last year at Sembower Field. Smith holds a 4-3 lead over Morgan since arriving at Miami.\n"What you hope for is to play well and hopefully carry it over to the weekend," Morgan said. "We've been disappointed with how we have been playing lately. We have not been playing good defense."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Andrew Shaffer at asshaffe@indiana.edu.