IU hosts IPFW for 3-game stretch

As March rolls to an end, the IU baseball team is beginning to pick up steam.\nThe Hoosiers are riding a four-game win streak it will take into a three-game series against IPFW this weekend. IU will play an IPFW team that is only 4-16 on the year but has won their last two games, scoring a total of 20 runs in the two-game stretch. \n“I keep telling the guys it doesn’t matter who we’re playing,” IU coach Tracy Smith said. “IPFW, they have been struggling, but they’ve always had a quality arm. So we’ll be focused and we’ll be concentrating on what we’re trying to do, which is take care of the baseball and quality at bats.”\nThe Hoosiers, on the other hand, played a total of eight games in Florida during spring break and lost the first four, including three to then-undefeated Florida State. Recently, though, IU regained its momentum and scored at least 10 runs in three of its last four games.\n“At Florida State, we couldn’t even buy a hit or a run,” sophomore outfielder Andrew Means said. “We just weren’t hitting in certain situations where we needed to hit. We went to North Florida and the Florida A&M games with a different mind-set, knowing we can score runs, knowing we can win the game.”\nSenior shortstop Keith Haas said he was pleased to see the team begin to score more runs during spring break but said the team’s success did not just come with power hitting.\n“We started doing some situational hitting, which obviously helps win games,” Haas said. “Just doing the little things, we’re starting to realize is very important because hitting a home run, one swing of the bat isn’t going to win games.”\nLed by Means’ strong play, the Hoosiers subsequently won their final four games of the spring break trip to even their record at 8-8. Due to his efforts in Florida, the Big Ten conference named Means their player of the week. In eight games he hit .500, going 13-26 with eight runs and eight steals.\nThe Hoosiers have also found another source of offense in junior infielder Reid Briglia. In his last eight games, Briglia hit .411 and scored six runs while driving in another four runs. On the season, Briglia is fifth on the team in hitting with a batting average of .341. \nWith Means and the rest of the offense starting to click, the Hoosiers had a setback on their pitching staff. After beginning the year with a 3.45 era and 15.2 innings pitched, good for fourth and third on the team respectively, junior Chris McCombs suffered a season ending injury. In high school, McCombs had Tommy John surgery on his throwing arm, and he re-injured the same place in his arm over spring break.\nEven with the loss to McCombs, Smith said he is pleased with the pitching to this point. When Big Ten play begins, however, he said he will need more pitchers to step up for the Hoosiers.\nFor now, the Hoosiers said their only focus is on the weekend series with IPFW. Even though the Mastadons have not played well to this point, Haas said the Hoosiers can’t take them lightly.\n“You don’t change your mentality with who you’re playing,” Haas said. “You just go out there and play as hard as you can, and we’ll hopefully get three from them this weekend.”