Then the ball kept carrying and sailed well over the 40-foot-tall scoreboard beyond the outfield fence. Sowers said it was the longest he’s ever hit a baseball.
“I got a good pitch to hit, put a good swing on it and it just went,” Sowers said.
The home run came in the ninth inning of IU’s 11-7 win Tuesday at Kentucky. Sowers went 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored.
Sowers’ ninth-inning home run scored senior infielder Casey Rodrigue from first base and extended IU’s two-run lead to four.
“I don’t know if that one even landed,” Rodrigue said. “I first started off sprinting and then the center fielder just stopped and watched it, and I was like ‘Oh my ?goodness.’”
Rodrigue said the only reason he ran at all was because IU spent all of Monday’s practice working on hustling and playing hard. That practice was good for one or two steps of hustle, Rodrigue said, before he jogged and admired the path of Sowers’ blast.
IU Coach Chris Lemonis said it was one of the longest balls he’s seen hit. The longest belongs to former Hoosier Kyle Schwarber’s home run at Louisville last season when Lemonis was still coaching the Cardinals.
“That ball didn’t need the wind,” Lemonis said of Sowers’ homer. “It was over the scoreboard by a good way.”
There was a steady wind blowing out to left field for most of the game, which helped propel Sowers’ home run in the ninth inning. But it didn’t help when Sowers hit a triple off the top of the right field wall in the fifth inning.
That triple spliced and fought through the wind to reach the outfield wall, much to the disbelief of Kentucky’s right fielder Marcus Carson.
Carson kept drifting back ever so slowly, expecting the wind to knock the ball down short of the warning track. But he kept drifting back into the wall as the ball caromed back towards the infield.
Before his breakout Tuesday, Sowers was struggling. He went 0-for-5 in three games against Iowa.
“The season can catch up with you a little bit so with all the travel and everything,” Lemonis said. “I think he got his feet back under him and made some adjustments.”
One of the adjustments Sowers made was becoming more patient at the plate. He said when a hitter works the count more he sees more strikes and, as a result, sees more pitches he can hit hard.
Opposing pitchers had begun to notice Sowers’ aggressiveness at the plate They wouldn’t throw him strikes, and when they did, it was on the corners.
Sowers’ home run Tuesday in his fifth at bat came in a 1-1 count on a fastball over the middle of the plate. His triple in his third at bat came in a 3-1 count.
“I tell guys all the time he hasn’t really figured it all out yet, and when he does it’s going to be scary,” Lemonis said. “Swing wise he’s still got a little bit of growth in there, but he’s just so good and a very mature player for a freshman.”
