The Indiana Hoosiers took on Evansville Purple Aces at Bart Kaufman Field earlier this week.
The Evansville Purple Aces (8-16) made their way to Bart Kaufman Field Tuesday night to take on the Indiana Hoosiers (14-8-1, 3-0 Big Ten). It’s an inconvenient time for any team to have to play Indiana as they have now won ten of their last eleven games.
It was a rocky start for starting pitcher Tim Herrin, who later found his groove. Evansville led off the game with back to back hard hit doubles. The third batter of the inning singled to left plating the Aces second run of the game in three at-bats. Herrin was visited on the mound by sophomore catcher Ryan Fineman and they got themselves out of the inning with minimal damage. The Hoosiers came up in the bottom of the first with no one reaching base.
After Herrin settled in at the top of the second inning, the Hoosiers got their offense going. It started off with sophomore Luke Miller getting on base with a single. National Player of the Week Matt Lloyd then got on base by a HBP off his helmet. Logan Sowers had the Hoosiers first RBI of the game with a single to right scoring Miller. Indiana took the lead when senior Tony Butler had a two-RBI double.
There were not anymore runs put on the board until the bottom of the fourth when the Hoosiers tacked on a couple more. The offense got running again when catcher Ryan Fineman had a sac bunt moving runners to second and third. A past ball from Evansville starter Alex Weigand scored one. With a man on third the Hoosiers put on the suicide squeeze and it worked to perfection.
Starting Pitcher Tim Herrin came out after five innings pitched. It turned out to be a good outing for Herrin after a rough start. He did not allow any runs after the first inning. Freshman Cal Krueger came in and threw four innings only allowing one run with no walks and got the save.
Indiana looks to stay hot continuing their home-stand against Indiana State Wednesday night. This has been a great stretch for the Hoosiers after a mediocre start to the season. If Indiana can keep this going through Big Ten play they could start making a push for the top 25.
The Hoosiers are only one game back of being first in the Big Ten and you have to think their odds of taking the division soon are high. If we start to see more contributions from seniors Austin Cangelosi and Craig Dedelow the team will really become dangerous. Look for the Hoosiers to continue Big Ten play this weekend in Bloomington when they play Nebraska in a three-game series.