Baseball begins first season with wins versus Ball State

The No. 33-ranked IU club baseball team opened its inaugural season with a hit, winning two out of their first three games in their series against Ball State.\nThe team is in its inaugural year as a club team at IU and in its first season with the National Club Baseball Association (NCBA). The NCBA placed the first-year Hoosiers in the Great Lakes South conference. Junior Matt Ostrega says the conference is tough, but he has high hopes for the season.\n"We have the talent to do something special this year," Ostrega says. "We play in a tough conference with several great teams including (No. 2) Illinois and Ball State, and winning this first series of the year just proves that we can compete against very good ball clubs."\nSophomore Kevin Rogers, the No. 10-ranked home run hitter among all players in the NCBA, agrees with Ostrega.\n"I have very high expectations for our team this year," Rogers said. "We have so much talent on this team. We just need to put it to use. Even though this is our first year as a club team I expect us to go out and win every game and we have the ability to do so. We have so much depth on the team it creates great competition within the team pushing each other and improving each day."\nThe second game had much more scoring as IU beat Ball State again, 10-9. The Hoosiers were down 9-3 in the bottom of the sixth when they rallied to win in a comeback fashion. The team scored four runs in the sixth inning and three runs in the seventh inning giving them the one run win. Rogers hit a two-run homerun to tie the game in the seventh. A deep pop fly allowed senior Steve Powell to score the \nwinning run.\nThe third game didn't go as IU had hoped. The team jumped out to an early 5-1 lead but eventually lost to their in-state rival, 9-6.\nBoth Ostrega and Rogers feel that this team can do some \ndamage, even in a tough conference. Ostrega is confident in the team's ability to do well this season.\n"I feel this squad is going to surprise some teams this season," Ostrega said.\nRogers is confident enough to make an early-season prediction.\n"I am predicting right now, with the talent we have, we will win our conference and go far into the playoffs," Rogers said.\nThe team plays its home games at Bloomington North High School and will have its next home series against Northwestern March 25 and 26.