My Two Cents: 3 Things I Liked From the Baseball Weekend
MOBILE, Ala. — A few weeks before Opening Day, Indiana baseball coach Jeff Mercer still wasn't sure what to expect from his baseball team. He loved all the work that everyone had put in during the offseason, and he loved the talent and depth on his roster.
But, as he's prone to often say, you don't know what you don't know. So it was going to take some game action to see what Indiana really had this year. Wins and losses really weren't going to matter the first three weeks, he said, because they were playing quality foes — six of their first 10 games are against ranked teams — and almost all of them were far away from home.
So the bonus these first two weeks is that the Hoosiers are actually winning games. The Hoosiers are 4-2, and have won four games in a row. And the best part is that they have really looked good doing it.
It's late February, so things certainly aren't perfect. There's plenty to work on — especially defense and situational hitting — but there's a lot to be happy about, too.
Here are three things I liked from the Hoosiers over the weekend:
1. The pitching keeps coming at you every day
Indiana's three starting pitchers — Tommy Sommer, Gabe Bierman and Braydon Tucker — threw 16 2/3 innings this weekend and didn't give up a single earned run. Tucker has won both starts, and Sommer and Bierman looked great after somewhat-shaky first outings at LSU.
"it feels good (to be 2-0), but I've just got a lot to improve on,'' Tucker said. The three starters all push each other, and that friendly competition pays off, too. "It feels good to go 3-0 all week, but we need to keep paying attention to details and hold each other accountable.'' .
The South Alabama people who watched Indiana all weekend in the three-game sweep were also impressed with all the big arms that kept coming out of the Indiana bullpen game after game.
Catcher Collin Hopkins, who caught them all, was impressed, too, especially with closer Connor Manous, who got himself in a bases loaded, no-out jam in the ninth inning Friday and never blinked, pitching right out of it with one perfect pitch after another in getting a groundout and two strikeouts to end the game.
"That kid was so tough,'' Hopkins said. "Manous, finishing that game out on Friday, that was awesome with throwing that curveball in the dirt. He threw it right where he needed to (to get the strikeout).''
2. Even in a sweep, they weren't satisfied
Don't think for a minute that a weekend sweep means anything to these starters, either. It's just the beginning, and they all know they can be better. Tucker, for instance, wasn't even happy with his five-inning scoreless outing on Sunday in the 12-3 win over Siena.
"I need to establish my fastball better early. There were too many times I was putting myself in a hole by missing spots,'' said Tucker, a sophomore from Brazil, Ind. "I was in too many 2-1 situations, and things like that. I can be better. I need to be better.''
What was nice about it was that all three starters worked their way through the occasional issues, especially when their defense — which made five errors over the weekend — let them down.
"The ceiling for them is nowhere near where they're at,'' Hopkins said. "They've pitched well, but I think they can do even better.''
3. Elijah Dunham can rake
Elijah Dunham has been on fire. He had seven hits over the weekend and leads the Hoosiers with a .476 batting average, hitting 10-for-21 overall. He hit his first home run on Sunday, a long three-run blast to right field.
Indiana lost a lot of pop in the lineup from 2019 but Dunham, a junior from Evansville, Ind., doesn't think they're going to miss a beat in 2020. He loves this lineup.
"We're going to be just as effective as last year,'' he said. "We had a great team last year, but we've got a great team this year, too. We're really disciplined at the plate as a unit and we're going to have a great year.''