Indiana Splits Doubleheader with LSU Thanks to Tucker
BATON ROUGE, La. – Braydon Tucker was something of an unknown in Indiana's opening weekend pitching rotation. After all, he had only pitched six-plus innings as a freshman a year ago.
But he came through in a big way on Saturday night, looking great in six solid inning in helping Indiana beat No. 11 LSU 7-2 to get a split in the Saturday doubleheader.
“He did a really good job tonight,” Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said of Tucker, who allowed just four hits and one run in his season debut. “You think about him waiting all day and he came out and really, really pitched.”
Indiana had lost its season opener on Friday and then lost Saturday's first game 7-4, so getting out of Baton Rouge in the final game was huge. It had been moved up from Sunday to Saturday because of impending weather.
Tucker, a 6-foot-4 sophomore from Brazil, Ind., left after six with a 3-1 and Connor Manous was sharp out of the bullpen, pitching two scoreless innings.
Grant Richardson continued his hot weekend on Saturday night with an RBI sacrifice fly in the top of the third. On the weekend, the sophomore center fielder went 6-for-12 and had five RBIs.
“Grant has always been a talented player and as he’s grown throughout the course of the last year through experience,'' Mercer said. "He’s become much more a tactician of the game. He’s controlled his emotions, discipline and made himself into a really terrific player.”
IU steadily built a lead Saturday night with another sacrifice fly from senior utilityman Drew Ashley and an RBI-double from Richardson.
It was enough to give Tucker a comfortable lead on the mound and he did the rest.
Richardson put the game away with a two-run home run in the ninth inning to put the game away.
In the first game, Indiana hit the ball well, getting 10 hits and scoring four runs, but LSU's bats were on fire. Indiana starter Gabe Bierman allowed five runs in five innings. Cole Barr and Elijah Dunham were the hitting stars for Indiana. Barr had a two-run homer and 3 RBIs and Dunham went 3-for-4.
The Hoosiers trailed 5-1 through four innings, but scrapped back with two runs in the fifth inning and another in the top of the eighth, but LSU scored twice in the bottom of the inning to put the game away.
Indiana was using this weekend to learn a lot about its young team in a hostile environment against one of the best teams in the country, and the Hoosiers acquitted themselves well. The experience should mean a lot going forward.
"It's hard to sweep a three-game series, but I give a lot of credit to Indiana. They have a good team and they have a lot of arms. They had a lot of guys coming in throwing over 90 (mph),'' LSU coach Paul Mainieri said. "They had two or three really good arms they threw at us.''
Indiana plays three games next weekend in Mobile, Ala., against Tennessee-Martin, South Alabama and Siena.
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