Indiana Baseball Beats Northern Kentucky 11-5; Wiggins, Stadler Hit First Home Runs This Season
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — Indiana took an early lead and easily defeated Northern Kentucky 11-5 Wednesday at Bart Kaufman Field as Andrew Wiggins and Jake Stadler hit their first home runs of the season. It was the first-career home run for Wiggins.
Wiggins, a freshman, homered in the bottom of the third when he pinch-hit for starting second basemen Brandon Burckel, who is now hitting less than .100 and committed a second-inning error that led to a Northern Kentucky run.
“I just wanted the pinch-hit option,” Mercer said. “I was gonna take our shot offensively to make that move. He made me look pretty smart there with the two-run homer. We have a lot of good offensive players on the bench … there wasn’t as much behind it from a defensive standpoint … [Burckel’s] gonna have to continue to get better defensively and manage his at-bats offensively.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Stadler golfed his first home run in an Indiana uniform to place the Hoosiers up 9-3.
Freshman right-hander Seth Benes was slated to open Wednesday’s game, just as he had for Indiana’s past two midweek games. He was scratched late due to tightness and replaced by sophomore right-hander Ethan Phillips. Phillips went 1⅔ innings and did not allow an earned run through nine batters. The Hoosiers had five hits — three for extra bases — and scored five runs in the the bottom of the first and never trailed.
On Sunday, Phillips started versus Arizona and only allowed one run in 2⅓ innings but the Hoosiers eventually lost, 12-1. Right-handed reliever Julian Tonghini only got one out while giving up four runs that game. On Wednesday, Tonghini picked up his second save of the season and threw 3⅓ scoreless innings — the most by any Hoosier pitcher — striking out four.
“It was a great feeling,” Tonghini said about Wednesday’s outing. “You never know when your name is gonna get called. So just being prepared every day. Some days, you're not going to perform the way you want to and some days you are, but it's just a matter of how you get up the next day and stick to your routine … just hammering the slider. Throwing it at guys, starting it at guys and then having it just running in the zone was big for me tonight.”
Indiana junior Brock Tibbitts posted his seventh-career four-hit game and drove in two runs. Wiggins’ homer moved him to 2-for-5 on the season in seven games. He also drove in two runs. Stadler and sophomore Tyler Cerny led Indiana with three runs driven in. Cerny also had three errors at shortstop in a game played in misty conditions. He was responsible for two of Northern Kentucky’s three unearned runs.
But Northern Kentucky also stranded 12 runners. In the eighth inning, the Norse left the bases loaded. In the ninth, Indiana freshman Hayden Carlson, the replacement for Burckel, initiated the game-ending double-play.
Indiana, 8-4, plays Troy Friday at home.
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