Pete Haas trotted out from Indiana baseball’s bullpen in left field with one out in the top of the ninth inning. The redshirt junior was the ninth pitcher to enter the game for the Hoosiers.
Haas recorded the final two outs of the ninth inning, but it was already too late as Indiana dropped its final midweek game of the season Tuesday at Bart Kaufman Field against Indiana State University 7-5. The Hoosiers move to 20-17 on the season.
Indiana started its day by retiring the first six batters of the game with sophomore right-handed pitcher Jackson Yarberry on the mound. It was the first time Yarberry completed a scoreless outing since Feb. 23 against Harvard University, and his longest outing since Feb. 26 against Xavier University. He finished the day with two strikeouts as he held the Sycamores off the basepaths in his two innings of work.
The Hoosiers opened the game with a lead in the bottom of the second inning, as sophomore infielder Jasen Oliver hit a two-run home run in his first start since March 23 against UCLA. After starting the first 14 games of Indiana’s season, Oliver was moved to the bench as Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer made moves around the infield. Since then, Oliver has made just nine appearances and started in five of them.
“Kudos to him for being prepared,” Mercer said postgame. “Just an assessment of the defense of Sunday and wanted to give Jasen a look.”
Oliver finished the day going 1 for 3 with two RBIs and a home run, along with a couple of impressive defensive plays at third base.
After a scoreless third against senior left-handed pitcher Deron Swanson, the Sycamores made a push. Indiana State senior utilityman Carlos Pena’s single and redshirt senior outfielder Keegan Garris’ walk caused Mercer to pull Swanson in favor of sophomore left-handed pitcher Ryan Rushing.
Rushing held opposing teams scoreless in his last 2 2/3 innings pitched across three games. He was looking to stay the same as he got out of a bases-loaded jam in the fourth after a single ricocheted off Rushing before he retired the final two batters of the inning.
The Sycamores, however, had other ideas.
Indiana State’s first six batters of the fifth inning reached safely on four singles and two walks, forcing Mercer to turn to redshirt sophomore righty Jacob Vogel as the Hoosiers fell behind 4-2. Rushing finished his day allowing five hits, two walks, four earned runs and collected no strikeouts.
“Rushing did a good job, he didn’t do anything wrong,” Mercer said. “Just kind of some tough luck there in that inning the hardest ball was a lineout.”
Vogel faced just three batters on the day before Mercer made the move to freshman right-handed pitcher Henry Brummel in the sixth inning. Entering Tuesday’s game, Brummel pitched just 6 2/3 innings across six appearances. His last two outings against the University of Louisville on April 1 and Illinois on April 13 resulted in zero earned runs.
In one inning of work, Brummel gave up two earned runs on one hit and one walk in five batters faced, extending the Sycamores lead to four.
The Hoosiers weren’t going away, though, as junior outfielder Devin Taylor tied the Indiana career home run record with his 11th deep ball of the season and 47th of his career. Taylor is now tied with Mike Sabo (1985-88), Mike Smith (1989-1992) and Alex Dickerson (2009-2011).
Taylor nearly broke the record in the bottom of the eighth inning as he drove a ball to left field, however, it was caught right at the warning track.
Redshirt junior lefty Grant Holderfield held the Sycamores scoreless in the seventh despite hitting two batters in the inning before handing the ball off to Brayton Thomas. Thomas, a freshman left-handed pitcher, made just six appearances before Tuesday, giving up four earned runs but zero hits in 5 1/3 innings.
Thomas gave up his first hit of the season along with a walk as Indiana State reclaimed a four-run lead in the top of the eighth. A walk to sophomore outfielder Carter Beck gave Thomas four walks on the season, as he’s now given up nine free passes via walks and hit by pitches.
In total, Indiana threw nine different pitchers who gave up 11 hits, eight walks, two hit batters and seven earned runs.
“The goal is to win along the way,” Mercer said about getting nine different pitchers experience, “but you’re trying to accomplish both tasks at the same time to impact the season in a positive way.”
Junior infielder Tyler Cerny’s solo home run to lead off the bottom of the ninth inning gave the Hoosiers some life. Freshman two-way player Caleb Koskie hit a double the very next batter, which forced Indiana State to make a pitching change to senior righty Carson Seeman. After giving up an RBI double to graduate student outfielder Tyler DeMartino with two outs in the inning, Seeman closed out the game as the Sycamores picked up their 19th win of the season with their 7-5 victory.
The Hoosiers will look to get back on track this weekend at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington as they welcome Maryland for a three-game series from Friday to Sunday. Game one will get underway at 6 p.m. Friday, as all three games will be streamed on Big Ten+.
