Indiana baseball lost back-to-back games where it had the lead headed into the eighth inning against USC on March 29 and the University of Louisville on April 1. The Hoosiers’ head coach Jeff Mercer tried something different when preparing for Michigan State this weekend — getting up some shots in Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall.
“They played hard, they played great defense, they were a team, they were fundamental,” Mercer said to his team as he highlighted the five, crimson championship banners hanging from the ceiling. “That’s what they (fans) expect of us. That’s the level that we have to play at together as a team.”
In a chance to get away from the game of baseball for a day, Mercer and the Indiana baseball team put some jump shots up in one of the most storied buildings in basketball. For the Hoosiers, it was a chance to come together as a team.
“Part of the issue was a lack of comradery between the guys,” redshirt sophomore outfielder Korbyn Dickerson said after the game Monday. “It put a smile our face not to come out here practicing the same thing we’ve been practicing every day."
Last weekend, in a three-game sweep over Michigan State, the Hoosiers looked more together than they have all season, as Indiana outscored the Spartans 38-8 April 6 and 7.
With the first game knotted up at two a piece in the bottom of the fourth inning Sunday, junior outfielder Devin Taylor hit a single through the left side of the infield, which gave the Hoosiers a two-run lead.
Indiana didn’t trail the rest of the series.
Despite not having an extra-base hit all weekend, Mercer praised Taylor for his performance against the Spartans.
“I thought Devin played his best weekend of baseball,” Mercer said.
Taylor, a potential first-round draft pick in this year’s MLB Draft, went 6 for 11 against Michigan State along with three RBIs. His 48 hits on the year have him ranked fourth in the Big Ten.
Indiana started well in all three contests, scoring a combined 12 runs in the first inning of the series. Each of the first runs of the game were driven in by junior infielder Tyler Cerny, who also filled the stat sheet against the Spartans.
With his two walks and three hits by pitches, Cerny registered just eight at bats and collected a hit in half of them while driving in five runs. He got his revenge for the hit by pitches in the second inning of the 18-2 win on Monday with a two-run home run to left field— his seventh of the season. Mercer called him “outstanding” after the double header Monday.
Dickerson continued his red-hot season as he retook the Big Ten lead in RBIs with 54 on the season after picking up eight in three games. Dickerson went 8 for 15 on the weekend including a two-run shot in the final game of the series for his 14th of the season.
“The power has always been there,” Dickerson said after the game. “The adjustments that are made in the fall have shown.”
Mercer and Dickerson both emphasized how important the freshmen were against the Spartans. Freshmen combined for 19 of Indiana’s 41 hits on the weekend along with 17 RBIs and scored 20 of the Hoosiers’ 38 runs.
“Man, oh man, those freshmen. They played awesome today,” Mercer said. “I was really, really happy for them, especially Koskie.”
Caleb Koskie, a freshman from Excelsior, Minnesota, got his first start in the field for Indiana in its second game of the series. The two-way player has made five appearances on the mound this season and got the nod in right field Monday. In four at bats, Koskie picked up his first career hit — a grand slam to deep right field that gave the Hoosiers a 5-0 lead — as he went 2 for 4 with six RBIs.
“We recruited him as a pitcher and he said, ‘I want to hit when I come in,’” Mercer said of Koskie. “Within a couple of weeks, he made me a believer.”
Koskie was an analogy for the Hoosiers’ breakout weekend as both sides of the ball were firing on all cylinders.
Only one Indiana pitcher, redshirt senior righty Gavin Seebold, gave up more than one earned run over the series. He got the nod in the first game Sunday, going five innings for the first time since Feb. 22 against Fordham University. Seebold gave up just three hits and one walk while striking out three of 20 batters faced.
The duo of graduate student right-handed pitcher Ben Grable and redshirt senior righty Cole Gilley only needed to pitch seven innings Monday in the first of two run rules. The pair allowed just two earned runs on five hits while striking out seven batters. Gilley picked up his fifth game with five or more strikeouts and now has 15 strikeouts in his last two outings.
Luckily for the Hoosiers, they only used five pitchers in the first two games of the set, which meant they could turn to a rested bullpen to close out the sweep. Redshirt junior Pete Haas had his longest outing since March 4 against Northern Kentucky University, where he threw 2 1/3 innings like he did Monday. He faced 11 batters who collected just four hits and one earned run.
Haas was relieved by redshirt junior left-handed pitcher Grant Holderfield and junior righty Aydan Decker-Petty. The tandem pitched the final 4 2/3 innings of the game, giving up just five hits, one earned run and seven strikeouts. Decker-Petty has now given up just two earned runs while striking out seven batters in his last four appearances.
The Hoosiers’ trip down the street to Simon Skjodt Assembly Hall triggered what Mercer called “one of the best days” he’s been a part of at Indiana. Not only did the Hoosiers get it done on the offensive side of the ball against the Spartans, but the pitching staff showed up on more than one occasion. With many of the tough West Coast matchups out of the way, Indiana has opened the window for a potential hot stretch through April.
Indiana doesn’t have much time to celebrate its second series sweep of the season. Due to poor weather, the Hoosiers are scheduled to play their fourth game in three days Tuesday against Ball State University and close out their nine-game home stand. With a win, Indiana would finish with a 6-3 record over that span.
The first pitch against the Cardinals is scheduled for 6 p.m. Tuesday at Bart Kaufman Field. The game will be streamed on Big Ten+.
