IU looks to avenge early-season loss against Sycamores

On March 6, the IU baseball team fell to Indiana State, 5-3 in Terre Haute. Today at Sembower Field, the Hoosiers get their shot at revenge.\nPlaying their first of five home games throughout the next month, the Hoosiers are coming off a disappointing weekend against Purdue. The Boilermakers took three of four games to put IU at 14-17 on the season.\n“I think our intensity level was better last weekend,” said IU coach Tracy Smith. “You’ve got to be able to play with a certain level of energy at the college game. It’s baby steps but it is a step in the right direction so we’re going to continue to build on that.”\nFreshman pitcher Chris Squires is scheduled to make his second start of the year today against the Sycamores.\nIn the first matchup between IU and ISU, Squires made his first scheduled start and gave up four runs in the first inning. In the second inning, Smith elected to throw freshman pitcher Billy Kitchen who pitched 4 1/3 innings of two-hit baseball.\nThe Hoosiers scored a single run in the second, fourth and sixth innings but were unable to come back from the deficit they incurred in the first inning. IU also lost freshman left fielder Kipp Schutz for the year after breaking his collarbone in the first inning.\n“We played them over there and didn’t swing the bats really well on a cold day,” Smith said. “They’re going to be solid, but we’re going to try to run some arms out there and get ready for Ohio State this weekend.”\nWhile the Hoosiers experienced a lack of offense on March 6, the team began to swing the bat well last weekend at Purdue and expect their hitting to carry over to today’s game.\nAgainst Purdue, IU’s offense came around as the team hit four home runs last weekend. Previously, the Hoosiers had only hit one round tripper in their first 27 games.\n“Hopefully this is the beginning of a sign of things to come because we’re still going to get the good pitching performances we’ve had all year,” said junior designated hitter Jon Fixler. “And if we put up a bunch of runs, I think this will be a turning point for us, hopefully.”\nHowever, the pitching for the Hoosiers last weekend was not as strong as it has been all year; they gave up an average of nearly eight runs per game against the Boilermakers. But the Hoosiers expect the pitching to turn around enough to allow them to win future games.\n“They’ve been pitching great all season,” said sophomore center fielder Andrew Means. “Once we put two and two together and use the positives of hitting, we’re going to start getting some more wins.”