Hoosiers hit the road in search of first victory

If there's one thing the IU baseball team learned from losing three straight games against the Charlotte 49ers last weekend, it's that it has to take care of the little things to win. \nDuring the Charlotte series, IU was plagued with small mistakes, giving up extra bases that eventually added up to more runs for the opposing team.\n"We really need to grasp the concept that extra bases matter, you can't be balking guys over and wild-pitching guys over," IU coach Tracy Smith said. "I don't care if you're playing Miami of Florida or the New York Yankees; you want to make it difficult (to score runs)."\nThe Hoosiers (0-3) will try to take care of those little things and pick up their first victory of the 2006 season on the road again this weekend with a three-game set against the No. 16 Miami (Fla.) Hurricanes.\nIU has faced Miami (9-6) three times, the last coming in 1974 when the Hoosiers were swept in a three-game series. \nThe players are looking forward to IU's first trip to Miami in 32 years, but they are keeping it in the context of the season.\n"We're obviously really excited about it, but it's the same thing as last week," freshman pitcher Eric Wagner said. "We have to make sure we're doing the little things right."\nAt practice, Smith has stressed the importance of taking care of things on defense, because Charlotte was able to take so many extra bases and turn those into runs.\n"(Holding runners) was something we didn't do well last week," sophomore pitcher Chris McCombs said. "Miami is a good running team, so holding runners on is a big deal."\nMiami's running attack is led by freshman center fielder Blake Tekotte, who leads the team with six steals.\nPacing the rest of the Hurricane offense is freshman infielder Yonder Alonso, who leads the team with a .407 batting average and 21 RBIs in 15 games.\nIt's not just Alonso who is hitting. The Hurricanes come into this weekend with a .307 team batting average and an average of seven runs scored per game.\nSenior pitcher Josh Lewis (0-1, 7.36 ERA) will be the first to face the Miami offense tonight, followed by freshman Tyler Tufts (0-0, 11.25 ERA) in game two. The third IU starter has not been determined.\nMiami will counter with sophomores Carlos Gutierrez (4-1, 1.86 ERA) in game one, Manny Miguelez (2-1, 1.97 ERA) in game two and Scott Maine (1-0, 5.68 ERA) in game three.\nThe Miami pitching staff has compiled a 3.22 team ERA over its first 15 games.\nLeft fielder Jay Brant will lead the IU offense. Brant leads the team with a .357 batting average and two home runs after three games.\nIU will have one lineup change this weekend. Junior Keith Haas will take over as the starter at second base this weekend for Brett Sager, who has left the team for personal reasons.\nThe series begins tonight with the first pitch set for 7 p.m. at Mark Light Field followed by another 7 p.m. start Saturday. The final game will begin at 1 p.m. on Sunday.