IU moves back to .500 after weekend tournament

IU coach Tracy Smith saw his team deliver a blowout, a heartbreaker and a pitcher’s gem – all in one weekend.\nThe IU baseball team traveled to Memphis, Tenn., to compete in the AutoZone Classic this weekend, taking two of three games to be the runner-up in the tournament.\n“I thought it was pretty good baseball,” Smith said. “As long as we continue to improve, play solid baseball and make teams earn every hit off of us, our hitting is going to come around and we’re going to start seeing a lot more hits.”\nThe Hoosiers (3-3) began the weekend with an offensive explosion against Eastern Illinois. \nAfter falling behind 4-1 in the bottom of the second inning, the Hoosiers rebounded in the top half of the third to score seven runs and take an 8-4 lead. IU sent 11 men to the plate, with the first eight batters reaching base to take the lead for good.\nEastern Illinois, however, came right back, picking up three runs over the next two innings to put the game within reach. As soon as they came back, however, the Hoosiers added two runs in the top of the fifth inning and six more runs in the top of the ninth to put Eastern Illinois away, eventually winning 16-7.\nThe following day, the Hoosiers experienced a setback against Memphis. \nThe Tigers struck first with a solo home run early in the game. But over the next two innings, the Hoosiers put together a triple and two RBI ground-outs to give themselves a 3-1 lead in the top of the fourth.\nSophomore pitcher Tyler Tufts gave up a second run to the Tigers in the bottom of the fourth, but escaped the inning after loading the bases with one out. Tufts took a five hitter into the sixth but gave up three runs and Memphis added one more to take a 5-3 lead which would stay the same for the rest of the game.\nThe Hoosiers came back the following day with a 4-2 win against Northern Iowa, which included a gem from freshman pitcher Matt Bashore who made his first collegiate start. Bashore pitched 7 1/3 innings of five hit baseball, giving up two runs while striking out four.\n“My defense made as much of the good plays that kept my innings shorter than what they could have been,” Bashore said. “It got some of the pressure off me and it felt good to be back out there, playing as a team to get the win.”\nThrough the first six games of the season, the Hoosiers have already had several standout performances from freshman second baseman Evan Crawford.\nCrawford registered a hit in all six games, including four hits against Eastern Illinois, to raise his batting average to .520.\n“When you get to the games, you just do whatever you can to help the team win,” Crawford said. “That means you’ve just got to work a little bit harder by getting your at bats and working hard in practice.”\nSo far, Smith said he likes what he sees from his team and only sees further improvement as the year progresses. \n“We’re coming together as a team and I think the biggest thing is we’ve got some strong leadership on this team that the young guys can model themselves after,” Smith said. “I think that mentality has served them all very well, if they just come in and play the game.”