Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers stumble in home series with San Diego

The Indiana baseball team went 1-2 on their weekend series with San Diego. It dropped the Hoosiers to 8-5 on the year.

The Hoosier baseball team played a home series over the weekend for the first time this year. After playing the first three weekends on the road the Hoosiers finally played at home last Wednesday against Purdue. Indiana was scheduled to play a four-game set with visiting San Deigo but cold weather canceled the game on Friday and turned it into a three-game series.

Indiana came out and won the first game on Saturday 9-5. After both teams scored a run in the first inning, the Hoosiers took control in the 4th when they plated three runs. Cooper Trinkle and Drew Ashley both had two-out doubles to drive in the three runs.

San Diego would cut the lead to 4-2 in the top of the seventh but the Hoosiers would respond with two in the bottom of the inning and three more in the bottom of the 8th to run away with the victory.

Trinkle would lead the way offensively with three hits, while Elijah Dunham and Grant Richardson both had two hits for the victorious Hoosiers. Gabe Bierman would pick up his second win of the year going 6.1 innings while striking out five and only giving up one earned run.

The second game on Saturday wasn’t as nice for the Hoosiers as they would drop the game 6-2. Indiana couldn’t get much going on offense as they only recorded five hits and the two runs. Even with the struggles on offense, the Hoosiers trailed just 2-1 going into the 8th, but San Diego would score one in that inning and three more in the 9th to put it away.

Trinkle had two more hits to give him five on the day, but it wasn’t enough to help the Hoosiers get the sweep on Saturday. Matt Litwicki took the loss giving up two runs in four innings. He didn’t pitch badly, but with the lack of offense, he was the tough-luck loser.

In the rubber match on Sunday, San Deigo jumped out to a 3-0 lead after three and 5-0 going into the bottom of the 5th before the Hoosiers finally got on the board. Indiana would cut the lead to 5-2 in the bottom of the 5th, but couldn’t score again until the 9th and they were then down 13-2.

Drew Ashley would pace the offense from the leadoff spot going 3-3 on the game and Richardson and Collin Hopkins would both add two hits, but it wasn’t enough to overcome the offensive onslaught by San Deigo.

It was a tough way to end the weekend, especially one in which the Hoosiers had to feel they should have got more than one win.

The Hoosiers will look to get back on track when they host Evansville on the road on Tuesday. Game time is 7:00 pm and it can be seen on ESPN+.