Hoosiers win 1, lose 2 to start season

After losing its first two games of the season this weekend, the IU baseball team claimed its first win under some odd circumstances late Saturday night. Playing an unexpected double-header that started Saturday, the IU baseball team earned its first win of the 2007 season with a 5-1 score over Georgia Southern in the wee hours of Sunday morning. \nWith weather conditions expected to deteriorate by Sunday’s planned game time, the Hoosiers discovered that their game had been moved up to late Saturday night with the Eagles. Starter Tyler Tufts’ first pitch did not cross the plate until 11 p.m., but it was just the beginning for the sophomore starter.\nTufts would go the distance, claiming his third career complete game. He recorded three strikeouts while limiting the Eagles to just six hits.\n“Whatever I threw seemed to work,” Tufts said. “My teammates had to make some plays behind me so it wasn’t just me who had to have a good game.”\nWith Tufts holding Georgia Southern scoreless for five innings, the Hoosiers struck first, notching four runs in the fifth inning. Junior third baseman Tyler Cox knocked in a run on an RBI single and freshman second baseman Evan Crawford had a two-RBI single while also scoring in the frame. \nTufts finally gave up a run in the sixth while IU would score one insurance run in the bottom of the eighth as the Hoosiers claimed the 5-1 win.\n“Tyler was huge for us,” IU coach Tracy Smith said. “We weren’t informed we’d be playing earlier so we were throwing a lot of pitchers out there (in Saturday’s first game) so we needed that. He set the tone for us, and we desperately needed it.”\nThe weekend tournament got off to a rockier start for the Hoosiers as they dropped their first two games.\nIn Friday night’s season opener, IU’s defense came up short early in the game, taking Troy to an early 3-0 lead. With IU junior starter Doug Fleenor calming down on the mound and sophomore pitcher Joe Vicini pitching two shutout innings in relief, the Hoosiers seized the opportunity, clawing back into the game to force extra innings.\nThe comeback came up short as Troy scored the winning run in its half of the tenth inning off of IU reliever junior Chris McCombs.\n“It was good that we didn’t just settle,” senior shortstop Keith Haas said. “We competed and didn’t just go through the motions.”\nAfter Friday night’s heartbreaker, IU struggled out of the gate in its next game versus Southern Mississippi. The Golden Eagles jumped on freshman starter Danny Rosenbaum in the first inning scoring five runs on four hits.\nThe Hoosiers were unable to recover from the deficit as their pitchers continued to struggle. Southern Mississippi would score three in the third, six in the fourth, and one in the seventh.\n“We just stunk it up for nine innings,” Smith said. “We didn’t give ourselves a chance to win.”\nIU would muster three runs of its own in the fifth and one in the eighth. Haas finished the game a perfect three-for-three with two runs batted in at the plate in the losing effort as the Hoosiers fell 15-4.\nFor his team’s first live game action in months, Smith liked what he saw from his team.\n“For the first time playing, I was pleased with how we played,” Smith said. “There was a lot of good baseball we can build on.”\nNext up for the 1-2 Hoosiers is a trip to Memphis this weekend for games with Eastern Illinois, Memphis and Northern Iowa.