Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers Survive 9th-Inning Scare to Beat UT-Martin, 3-2
MOBILE, Ala. — The situation was perilous. Bases loaded, no one out, bottom of the ninth and only up by a run.
Connor Manous never blinked. Not once.
Indiana's ice-cool closer could have panicked, but the junior from Munster, Ind., simply did what he was supposed to do. He made one good pitch after another, even under enormous pressure, and got a groundout and two strikeouts to preserve a tense 3-2 victory over Tennessee-Martin Friday in Mobile, Ala.
"I told myself I had been in this spot before, and I knew I could get out of it if I just kept working pitch by pitch,'' Manous said. "Each out matters, and that first out, that chopper to third base, was big. I knew I was going to be OK before that, but that let me sort of catch my breath a little bit. I just kept throwing good pitches from there.''
He sure did, striking out the final two batters. Manous has now pitched four innings this season, and still hasn't given up a run.
"Connor was really good there,'' Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said. "He gave up a couple of hits and a walk, but he stayed right in it. There are so many things that you don't know until you know. You just have to go out and do it. He threw a lot of big innings for us last year, and he kept stringing good pitches together today. He was impressive.''
Manous said he was able to remain calm on the mound because he had been in the situation before. He had a bases loaded situation last year against Coastal Carolina, and gave up a hit to lose the game. It stuck with him, and he's better for it.
"I learned a lot from that. It's all about just staying focused and continuing to make good pitches. I never got ahead of myself. I just executed pitch after pitch and we got through it.''
All of Indiana's pitchers were good on Friday. Tommy Sommer, who had struggled through his first outing at LSU last Friday, allowing five runs in four innings, was much sharper against UT-Martin. He went five innings and only gave up two unearned runs. Lefty reliever Braden Scott was sharp, too, striking out four in two innings.
The Hoosiers needed all that good work on the mound because they struggled to score runs. They hit well, but left 12 men on base and shortstop Jeremy Houston was thrown out twice on the base paths, once in the second inning and again in the fourth.
Cole Barr got the Hoosiers going in the first inning with a towering home run to left, which cut through a harsh north wind.
"I got all of that one,'' Barr said afterward, putting a good swing on a 2-0 pitch. "I knew what that wind was doing and I didn't think it was going to get out. I was glad to see it get over the fence, because that wind was blowing hard.''
Sommer was perfect through three innings, but Tennessee-Martin finally got to him in the bottom of the fourth. Andrew McKenzie hit a rocket that skipped over the glove of Indiana first baseman Jordan Fucci and was scored an error, then a dribbler up the middle was stopped on a diving play by Houston, but he couldn't get the ball out of his glove to make a play at second.
Designated hitter Christian Hall hit a fly ball down the left-field line that Elijah Dunham dove for, but couldn't come up with it. McKenzie scored to tie the game at 1-1. Houston Wright then doubled to make it 2-1.
Indiana got the lead right back in the fifth, though, scoring twice. Elijah Dunham, who went 3-for-4, led off the inning with a single, and Fucci followed with another hit. Tyler Van Pelt singled Dunham in and then Fucci scored on a sacrifice fly to give Indiana the lead for good.
Summer gave up a leadoff single in the sixth, and that's when Mercer went to the bullpen, bringing in Scott and then Manous to shut the door. The pair struck out nine batters combined in four innings.
Game notes
- RICHARDSON OUT: Center fielder Grant Richardson was scratched from the starting lineup just prior to the start of Friday's game. He tweaked a previous injury in warmups and was held out. It's not expected to be serious.He was named Big Ten Player of the Week on Monday after going 6-for-12 at the plate in the LSU series, with five RBIs.
- PATIENT HITTERS: Despite not finishing off innings, Mercer liked the Hoosiers' approach at the plate all day. They were patient, and saw a whopping 170 pitches from UT-Martin throwers. "I liked where we were at offensively today. You have to be able to execute, and we came up with two outs in a lot of those RBI situations. We'll continue to get better.''
- SATURDAY'S GAME: Indiana takes on host South Alabama at Noon ET. The Jaguars, ranked No. 30 in the Collegiate Baseball national rankings, are the toughest of the three opponents this week. They'll start JUCO transfer Miles Smith, who isn't a hard thrower (88-89 mph) but has four pitches and stays in the zone. He was hit hard by Campbell last week, giving up four runs in three innings. Indiana will go with Gabe Bierman (0-1), who's looking to bounce back from a loss last week at LSU