Despite a career performance from sophomore Connor Foley on the mound Saturday afternoon in Indiana baseball’s 8-1 win over Illinois, the Hoosiers were dominated 9-1 and 15-8 in games one and three, respectively, en route to a series loss at Bart Kaufman Field.
After surrendering a seven-run sixth inning to Indiana State University in a 15-7 loss on March 19, the worrying trend of big innings continued for Indiana’s pitching staff in the series opener against the Illini on Friday night.
Sophomore righty Ethan Phillips tossed a clean pair of innings to open the contest, and graduate lefty Ty Bothwell followed up with three shutout frames. In the top of the sixth, though, the Illini started to jump on Bothwell.
A single and back-to-back doubles gave Illinois a 2-1 lead before Bothwell retired a batter, and he was pulled in lieu of junior Julian Tonghini after issuing a walk. Things didn’t get any easier for the Boston College transfer, who has emerged as a reliable option in long relief out of the Hoosiers’ bullpen.
Tonghini made it out of the inning, but not before surrendering three hits, walking three batters and giving up four runs. The Illini plated eight runs in the sixth and coasted to a 9-1 victory to open the weekend.
“It stinks because we actually played good defense and pitched it well outside of that one inning,” head coach Jeff Mercer said Friday. “They’ve been the killer.”
At the plate, Indiana combined for just four hits — junior Carter Mathison knocked two — and floundered against the one-two punch of senior righty Jack Crowder and freshman southpaw Regan Hall.
Crowder struck out six Hoosiers in his five inning start while rarely allowing traffic on the basepaths. But in the bottom of the fifth, Indiana loaded the bases with one out and had an opportunity to blow the game open.
Sophomore Tyler Cerny drove in a run with a sacrifice fly, but it was all Indiana could muster as sophomore Devin Taylor struck out to end the inning.
“When you have opportunities, you have to capitalize and we just didn’t,” Mercer said. “We weren’t able to break it open early.”
Saturday afternoon, Indiana returned to action with Foley on the bump. Foley worked seven shutout innings in the Hoosiers’ 8-1 victory to knot the series, punching out a career-high 10 batters and tossing 103 pitches.
Foley’s tremendous outing kept the Illini in check, and the Hoosiers backed him up with run support. Junior Josh Pyne ripped a two-run double to left field in the bottom of the second inning to open the scoring, and redshirt freshman Joey Brenczewski slapped an RBI single in the sixth to push Indiana ahead 3-0.
A four-run eighth for the Hoosiers all but sealed the Saturday win, and sophomore Brayden Risedorph closed out the final two frames. Unlike Friday’s contest, Indiana’s hitters were able to piece together lengthy at-bats and make the Illini arms work — an area of the offense Mercer has lamented not seeing enough of.
“Honestly, I think we’ve been pretty poor in those situations,” Mercer said. “We get away from the two-strike approach, we get trigger happy, we get pull happy, we take fastballs away for strike three. In all frankness, it’s nonsense. We’ve talked about it a ton.”
But on Saturday, Indiana was consistently competitive. It played small ball and wreaked havoc on the basepaths, as evidenced by Mathison’s steal of home in the eighth inning.
And it all started with the Hoosiers’ 6-foot-5 righty perched atop the mound, cruising through Illini batters one after the next. With Foley’s career-best outing, every facet of the game became simpler.
“It makes it easy on the defense when he’s out there just mowing guys down,” Brenczewski said Saturday. “I’m really appreciative of that.”
Part of the benefit of Foley’s start lies in saving the bullpen. Indiana had plenty of arms to work with in the series finale Sunday afternoon, and to Mercer’s chagrin, it had to turn to many of them.
Junior lefty Ryan Kraft opened the afternoon on the mound, and he didn’t last a full inning. Illinois jumped on Kraft from the outset, notching three hits and four runs, including a three-run homer from redshirt junior Drake Westcott in the top of the first.
Sophomore Aydan Decker-Petty relieved Kraft and immediately surrendered an RBI double, giving the Illini an early 4-0 advantage. In the top of the third, things spiraled dramatically for Indiana.
Decker-Petty gave up a three-run shot to junior Ryan Moerman, and his outing was immediately ended. Freshman Ryan Rushing entered in relief and hardly limited the damage, surrendering four runs of his own and registering just one out.
Senior Gonzaga transfer Jack Moffitt was the third Hoosier to throw in the third, and Illinois tacked on another run on a single from Westcott to complete the explosive eight-run frame.
“We’ve got to get our best pitches out of our hand in the heat of the battle,” Mercer said Sunday. “We did this Friday and we did it today where they score in bunches and don’t score the rest of the day.”
For the Illini, senior Jake Swartz spun five innings of three-hit, shutout ball and struck out four. Illinois threw three relievers after Swartz, a modest number compared to the Hoosiers’ 10.
Indiana junior Nick Mitchell notched a two-run single in the bottom of the seventh, and he lined a two-out, two-run double to left field in the eighth. The Hoosiers plated five runs in the eighth, four of which came off Illinois redshirt senior Joe Glassey, but it proved too little too late.
Moerman drilled his second homer of the afternoon off Indiana senior Seti Manase on the first pitch of the ninth inning, and Illinois ultimately sealed a 15-8 victory. Including Sunday, Indiana has surrendered 94 runs in its last eight games, an average of just under 12 per outing.
With the loss, Indiana moves to 12-12 on the year and 6-7 at home. Next, the Hoosiers remain home to face Middle Tennessee State University. The first pitch is set for 4 p.m. Tuesday and will be streamed on Big Ten Plus.
Follow reporters Matt Press (@MattPress23) and Nick Rodecap (@nickrodecap) for updates throughout the Indiana baseball season.
