Indiana baseball (22-18, 12-9 Big Ten) picked up its third series win last weekend at Bart Kaufman Field over Maryland. After taking two of three over the Terps, the Hoosiers are set to travel to one of the finer baseball sites in the state of Indiana as they take on Ball State University (29-12, 15-3 MAC) on Wednesday at Victory Field in Indianapolis.
It’s the second time in 15 days the two teams will meet. Indiana took the first matchup in Bloomington on April 8. Despite being down two runs in the first inning, Indiana’s offense exploded with five runs in the third inning behind a two-run home run from redshirt sophomore outfielder Korbyn Dickerson. Freshman infielder Cooper Malamazian also collected a two-run single later in the inning.
Senior left-handed pitcher Deron Swanson had his best outing of the year during the first matchup between the two teams. He pitched 4 1/3 innings and gave up just four hits and didn’t allow an earned run while striking out three batters. Swanson was pivotal in a game that saw the Cardinals go scoreless for seven straight innings.
Since losing to Indiana just over two weeks ago, Ball State has won six of its last seven games, including a series win over Bowling Green State University last weekend. The Cardinals scored a combined 43 runs in three games against the Falcons and won two of three games over the weekend.
Senior utilityman Nick Husovsky, who has started all 41 games for Ball State, gave the Hoosiers problems in their first meeting, going 2 for 5 with three RBIs. He has collected a hit in nine of his last 10 games, including five multi-hit performances. Over that span, Husovsky hit .353 with 18 hits, 12 RBIs and two home runs. This past weekend against Bowling Green, he collected seven hits in 17 at-bats with two RBIs and four extra base hits including a home run April 18.
Dylan Grego, a junior infielder for Ball State, is coming off a historic weekend against the Falcons, when he had a three-home run, nine RBI day Saturday. He went 7 for 16 with 13 RBIs and four home runs. Grego leads the Cardinals in batting average (.376), doubles (11), hits (64), home runs (12), RBIs (46) and runs scored (43). Despite going just 1 for 5 against the Hoosiers in the first meeting, Grego is a dangerous matchup for anyone on the Indiana pitching staff.
Coming off a 4 for 8 weekend with five runs scored, Indiana freshman infielder Will Moore was honored with Big Ten Freshman of the Week on April 21. He hit in the leadoff spot for the first time in his career April 20 and reached base safely five times with three hits and two walks, along with four runs scored. After hitting just one double in his first 25 starts of the season, Moore collected two Sunday.
Moore wasn’t the only player to be recognized last weekend, as junior outfielder Devin Taylor broke the Indiana all-time home run record with 48 career home runs, his first of two on the weekend, April 19. He went 6 for 11 (.545) with four runs scored, four walks and five RBIs. During his performance Sunday, Taylor reached base safely in every plate appearance with three hits and three walks. No Indiana player since at least 2005 has accomplished that feat.
Dickerson extended his hitting streak to six games against Maryland, going 7 for 14 with six RBIs to give him 64 on the season, extending his Big Ten lead to seven. Dickerson also hit two home runs and scored three runs on the weekend.
With pitching probables yet to be released, Indiana is expected to go to the bullpen similarly to last Tuesday against Indiana State University when the Hoosiers used nine different pitchers.
The first pitch for Wednesday’s game is set for 6 p.m. at Victory Field in Indianapolis. The game will be streamed on Indiana SRN.
