IU baseball built on the momentum it gained from two midweek victories to take two of three games in the Coastal Carolina Tournament.
IU beat Northeastern University and University of Connecticut before dropping the final game of the tournament to host No. 20 Coastal Carolina University, as ranked by D1Baseball.com.
On Saturday morning senior pitcher Pauly Milto got IU off to a strong start with an eight-inning outing to give IU a 6-4 victory over Northeastern. Milto struck out seven while only allowing three runs. All three runs came off a three-run home run in the eighth inning.
The IU offense jumped on Northeastern with six runs in the first two innings. Senior outfielder Logan Kaletha and junior outfielder Matt Gorski led the IU offense with four combined runs batted in.
Sophomore infielder Justin Walker got back into the IU lineup and had an immediate effect on the IU offense out of the eighth slot. With Walker and junior infielder Jeremy Houston pacing the bottom of the order, IU was able to give Gorski, Kaletha and sophomore outfielder Drew Ashley plenty of chances to drive runs in, opportunities which IU cased in on.
IU followed up its Saturday morning victory over Northeastern with a win against UConn. Behind Gorski’s grand slam in the sixth inning, IU took down UConn, 9-6. UConn jumped out to a 3-0 lead over junior pitcher Tanner Gordon and IU early in the game. However, IU’s offense bounced back in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings, putting up nine total runs. IU’s bullpen shut down the UConn offense, giving up zero earned runs.
On Sunday, IU got out to an early 2-0 lead, but wound up falling to No. 20 Coastal Carolina 6-5. Going into the ninth inning, IU had a 5-3 lead before the bullpen imploded. IU walked in a run during the ninth inning before a single scored two runs to end the game. IU’s offense was led by Ashley, senior infielder Matt Lloyd and sophomore infielder Cole Barr.
At the end of the weekend, IU's record for the season stands at 6-5.
IU will be back in action Tuesday afternoon in Bloomington against Indiana State University.
