A chilly evening matchup with No. 18 University of Louisville was on the docket for Indiana baseball Tuesday. For the second game in a row, the Hoosiers had control of the game before coughing up a late lead. Five Indiana errors stifled the Hoosiers as they fell 6-4.
Senior Ryan Kraft got the start for the Hoosiers after pitching four innings against USC on March 28. The 6-foot-4 lefty didn’t allow a hit, however, a lead-off walk to Cardinal sophomore infielder Alex Alicea allowed Louisville to strike first on an error from junior second baseman Tyler Cerny.
Sophomore lefty TJ Schlageter, Louisville’s starter, pitched 2 2/3 innings of no-hit baseball before being pulled in the third inning for freshman lefty Casen Murphy. Despite getting the final out of the third, Murphy struggled in the fourth inning. Junior left fielder Devin Taylor reached on an error to lead-off the inning, followed by a double from redshirt sophomore center fielder Korbyn Dickerson.
Murphy was pulled after walking freshman first baseman Jake Hanley, but not before Indiana scored its first run of the game on a wild pitch.
Freshman right-handed pitcher Jake Schweitzer entered for Louisville with runners on the corners and nobody out. After striking out Cerny, another wild pitch gave Indiana its second run of the game and the lead. With Hanley now on second, sophomore infielder Joey Brenczewski drove him in with two strikes in the count. Later in the inning, sophomore right fielder Andrew Wiggins reached on a walk with bases loaded, giving the Hoosiers a 4-1 lead.
Aydan Decker-Petty, a junior right-handed pitcher for the Hoosiers, pitched perfect baseball in the third and fourth before being relieved by freshman righty Henry Brummel. He faced just one batter, which resulted in a walk, and Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer turned to redshirt junior Grant Holderfield.
Louisville collected its first three hits in the sixth in consecutive fashion with Holderfield on the mound. Despite two errors in the inning, the Hoosiers gave up just one run as they held a 4-2 lead into the top of the eighth.
It was there that the Hoosiers, for the second game in a row, blew the lead late. Redshirt junior right-handed pitcher Pete Haas entered in the seventh and was still on the mound during Louisville’s four-run eighth inning, when the Hoosiers made their fourth and fifth errors of the game.
Following freshman infielder Cooper Malamazian’s error, which prevented the Hoosiers from getting out of the inning, the Cardinals instead tied the game and took the lead in the next at-bat as senior outfielder Eddie King Jr. crushed a two-run home run to give them a 6-4 lead.
Louisville barely held onto that lead, fighting off a ninth inning rally from the Hoosiers, however, Taylor and Hanley fell victim to strikeouts with the bases loaded.
Indiana will turn its attention to a weekend series against Michigan State. The first matchup of the three-game set is slated for 6 p.m. Friday at Bart Kaufman Field on Big Ten+.
