Hoosiers push for place in Big Tens

On Wednesday night, the IU baseball team took another step in the wrong direction towards qualifying for the Big Ten tournament. But beginning with this weekend’s series against Penn State, the Hoosiers will try to salvage what remains of their season.\nReturning to Bloomington for their first weekend series since the first week of April, the Hoosiers will play against a Nittany Lion team that has won 9 of its last 11 games. Conversely, the loss to Miami on April 25 gave IU (14-23) its eighth loss in a row.\n“You gotta have a good series, there’s no doubt about it,” said IU coach Tracy Smith. “If we don’t win this series, then it’s going to be a tough run.”\nThe Hoosiers enter the series in second-to-last place in the Big Ten standings with a conference record of 4-12, 3.5 games behind 6th place Iowa. In order to qualify for the Big Ten tournament at the end of the year, the Hoosiers need to finish in 6th place or better. Penn State, on the other hand, is in 3rd place with a record of 9-5 and has won its last two Big Ten series.\nOver their 9-2 stretch, the Nittany Lions have experienced a rebirth in their offense, raising their team batting average nearly 20 points in that time. For the year, Penn State has been led by their senior duo of catcher Joe Blackburn (.387, 24 RBI’s) and shortstop Matt Cavagnaro (.347, 27 runs scored).\nSlowing the Penn State offense will be the key for a Hoosier team that has been unable to produce much offense this season. Throughout the first half of the year, IU’s pitching put itself in a chance to win nearly every time the team went out. However, the squad has given up an average of nine runs per game during its losing streak.\n“We need to come out with a little emotion, a little fire and make sure we are ready to play this weekend,” said junior first baseman Jon Fixler.\nEven though the Hoosiers have tallied 23 losses to date, Smith said his team is has been close in every game this year with the exception of a few. Because of this reason, he also added that gaining confidence and eliminating unnecessary mistakes can push the Hoosiers over the hump.\n“I think one of the areas that’s going to be key for us, particularly this weekend, is the process of baseball,” said Smith. “How you approach the game and how you approach adversity and when the game’s on the line, wanting the baseball. It’s time that we grow up and take advantage of other teams’ mistakes.”\nWith the series starting Friday at 3 p.m., the Hoosiers will give the ball to sophomore pitcher Joe Vicini, who will be making his first start of the season. Vicini has been solid out of the bullpen this year, with a 2-1 record and an era of 3.72. He will be going up against Penn State pitcher Seth Whitehill, who has won three of his last four decisions.\nThough mentally the Hoosiers are frustrated with their recent play, the team is hoping that shaking things up – such as adding Vicini to the starting rotation – can jump start the ball club for the last few weeks of the season.\n“We’re a bit behind in the standings, but we still have a chance to make the Big Ten tournament, and a good weekend right now can propel us for the rest of the season,” said sophomore right fielder Chris Hervey. “We still have half the season left and we can easily go 12-4, make the tournament, turn this around and have a good season.”