No. 29 IU starts Big Ten play against Penn State

The Big Ten’s first- and last-place teams will play on Bart Kaufman Field when No. 29 IU (15-3) takes on Penn State (5-11) Friday to begin their three-game series this weekend.

The weekend series against Penn State marks the beginning of the Big Ten season for the Hoosiers, who went 14-7 last year in conference play.

“I’m really excited,” senior infielder Michael Basil said. “It seems like it crept up on us a little bit. I’m excited because winning the Big Ten is our No. 1 goal this year before anything else; we want to win the Big Ten outright.”

This season, being nationally ranked for the first time in program history, the Hoosiers are in a different mindset then years past, IU Coach Tracy Smith said.

“Before it’s always been we’ve had such a rotten spring break or something that the at-large stuff is pretty much out the door,” Smith said. “I don’t want us to think we’ve got to do any Herculean effort or anything differently once we hit Big Ten, let’s just keep doing what we’re doing.”

IU has the significant advantage in several statistical categories against the Nittany Lions this season.

Penn State ranks ninth in the Big Ten in batting average, ninth in slugging percentage, eighth in on-base percentage, ninth in runs scored, eighth in RBIs, eighth in hits and 10th in team earned run average.

Meanwhile, IU ranks first for every one of those statistical categories in the conference.

The probable pitchers for IU this weekend will be junior Joey DeNato on Friday and sophomore Kyle Hart on Saturday.

As for who the third rotation guy will be, not only for this series but in future Big Ten matchups, Smith said he was not as sure.

“That’s a very good question,” Smith said. “I would say right now, I would give the slight nod to (sophomore Aaron) Slegers, but we would still want to see it on a consistent basis.”

Slegers pitched Wednesday against the Miami (Ohio) Redhawks in IU’s home opener and gave up no runs in three innings of work.

Smith said the sophomore had a short outing on Wednesday in anticipation of him starting against the Nittany Lions this weekend.

Slegers, who has a 1.69 ERA in 21.1 innings of work this year, has been throwing strikes and staying away from walks, an attribute Smith values in his pitchers instead of velocity.

“This is not a slam, but we’ve got some really, really quality high mile-per-hour arms that aren’t getting a lot of innings because they are struggling with the strike zone,” Smith said. “The guys that are successful for us are throwing strikes.”

Last season, the Hoosiers nearly recorded a sweep of the Nittany Lions, who finished third in the conference, but fell 4-3 in a 10 inning contest. They did win the season series, however, by a 2-1 margin.

“We should have had a sweep against Penn State last year,” Basil said. “I think it’s a big weekend for us to really come out and prove where we think we are in the Big Ten.”