Following a three-day period when Indiana baseball (20-16, 10-8 Big Ten) won four games and closed out its homestand with a 6-3 record, the Hoosiers dropped their third road Big Ten series of the season on April 11-13. It’s the most Big Ten series Indiana has lost in a season since 2022. Now the Hoosiers return from a weekend in Champaign, Illinois, that resulted in them taking one out of three against Illinois at Illinois Field.
The 1-2 record on the weekend caused the Hoosiers to slide to seventh place in the Big Ten standings with the Fighting Illini taking fifth place. Before Indiana welcomes Maryland to Bloomington this weekend, the Hoosiers will play a midweek game against Indiana State University (18-17) on Tuesday.
It’s the second time the two schools have met this season after Indiana knocked off the Sycamores 9-4 on March 11 at Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute, Indiana.
Senior left-handed pitcher Deron Swanson’s first appearance highlighted the March 11 match for the Hoosiers. After transferring from the University of Saint Francis in Fort Wayne, Indiana, Swanson pitched three innings, allowing three hits and one earned run to the Sycamores along with five strikeouts.
Indiana State is coming to Bart Kaufman Field as winners of three of its last four games. Indiana State secured victories over Purdue on April 8 and a series win over Southern Illinois University from April 11-13 in Terre Haute.
The Sycamores are led by senior utility man Carlos Pena, who went 7-17 with four home runs and eight RBIs during that four-game span. This extended his hitting streak to eight games since April 1. During those eight games, Pena hit .432 with 16 hits, 17 RBIs and six home runs. He leads the team in batting average (.370), on-base plus slugging (1.175), hits (50), home runs (11) and slugging percentage (.719).
Despite having a slower weekend against the Salukis, redshirt senior outfielder Keegan Garis is another bat to watch out for in the Indiana State lineup. Garis is second on the team in OPS at 1.077 in 35 games started this season, collecting 35 hits, nine home runs and 26 RBIs. Garris is coming off a 1-4 performance against Southern Illinois where he hit a double and scored two runs, making him the team leader in runs scored.
Redshirt sophomore outfielder Korbyn Dickerson and freshman first baseman Jake Hanley led the way on offense for Indiana, going a combined 5-8 at the plate, highlighted by a Dickerson triple in the top of the ninth inning. The two drove in four of the Hoosiers’ nine runs on the day.
The Dickerson-Hanley duo will look to get back to that form against the Sycamores after going just 3-24 this past weekend with just three RBIs against Illinois.
Junior outfielder Devin Taylor became the 25th player in Indiana baseball history to reach 200 career hits, collecting three against Illinois. On Saturday, Taylor went 2-5 with two RBIs and scored two of the Hoosiers’ 12 runs. Still, Taylor is chasing history as he looks to become the all-time leader in home runs in Indiana history as he currently sits at 46, just one behind three players, Mike Smith from 1989-1992, Ted Kluszewski in 1945 and Alex Dickerson. Dickerson was the last to reach this achievement from 2009-2011. Taylor has gone eight straight games without a home run with his last coming against USC on March 29.
The Indiana pitching staff found consistency in April, prior to the series against Illinois. Heading into the series with the Fighting Illini, the Hoosiers gave up an average of 2.8 earned runs per game in five games against the University of Louisville, Michigan State and Ball State.
In three games against the Fighting Illini, the pitching staff gave up an average of seven earned runs per game.
Sophomore right-handed pitcher Jackson Yarberry is slated to get the start Tuesday. In his last three outings, Yarberry has pitched 3 1/3 innings, allowing 10 hits, eight earned runs and walked three batters. After the rough weekend, getting the pitching staff back on track before a three-game weekend series with Maryland on April 18-20 will be crucial.
Tuesday’s game against Indiana State is slated to get underway at 6 p.m. from Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington. The game will be streamed on Big Ten+.
