Big Ten push begins for IU with series at Illinois

Eight conference games left. Eight games left to rebuild a season.\nFor the IU baseball team, the charge up the Big Ten standings starts this weekend. With eight Big Ten games left, the Hoosiers sit in 10th place with a 6-17 conference record, 4.5 games behind Illinois, who sits in sixth place – the cutoff for qualifying for the Big Ten Tournament – with a 10-12 Big Ten record. The Hoosiers look to cut into the Fighting Illini’s lead with four games against them this weekend in Champaign, Ill. \n“Our destiny is in our own hands,” said freshman Evan Crawford. “We have to win every game that we can. The only way we can do that is to play solid every game – nobody’s going to give it to us.”\nThe Hoosiers are coming off a home and home non-conference series against Louisville during the week. On Tuesday, the Hoosiers fell 16-3 to the Cardinals at home. Wednesday’s game in Louisville had not finished by press time. \nIn Tuesday’s game at Sembower Field, the Hoosiers allowed 16 runs on 20 hits. IU coach Tracy Smith said his pitchers need to improve at finishing off batters.\n“We get guys on two-strike counts and we don’t put them away,” Smith said. “That has to get better either through performance or the quality of what we’re throwing out there. I don’t know what to say; you get ahead of hitters, you got to put them away.”\nSophomore Chris Hervey said the team can’t linger on its failures from Tuesday’s game.\n“You have to wipe it away and act like it never happened,” Hervey said. “You have to see what you can improve on, but tomorrow’s a new day, and we can come out and we can throw the ball real well tomorrow and hold them to a few runs and a few hits.”\nDespite his team’s numbers, Hervey was able to make a couple of spectacular plays in right field, making sliding catches to get out Cardinal hitters out.\n“He’s a competitive kid and he’s going to give you what he has,” Smith said about Hervey. “With this team, the biggest challenge is making sure guys don’t give up. (Tuesday) that didn’t happen on the mound; I saw some slumped shoulders.”\nAnother bright moment for the Hoosiers was Crawford recording his first career home run. In the first inning, the freshman took a pitch from Louisville’s Skylar Meade over the left field wall.\n“My approach was to just stay back because the pitcher wasn’t throwing fastballs – he was throwing all off speed,” Crawford said. “Our whole plan today was to stay back on the ball.”\nThe game was the second in a row that Crawford, who is listed as a second baseman, started at shortstop.\n“We’re going to try him the rest of the year at short, just to see what he can do out there,” Smith said. “Evan’s having a decent year, but from our end none of it means anything if the team doesn’t have a good one.”\nSmith hopes his team can start moving in the right direction this weekend with a critical series against Illinois.\n“We’ll keep working these guys, and hopefully the confidence stays alive, because anything can happen,” Smith said. “Just take something positive and get the positive feel going with these guys. Winning eight conference games is not undoable. Anytime you put the uniform on you have the chance to do that, and that’s what we need to understand.”