Indiana Baseball Faces Tough Questions About Jeff Mercer’s Future

After getting swept by rival Purdue over the weekend Indiana will not qualify for the Big Ten Tournament and is tied for last place.

Indiana University Hoosiers Head Coach Jeff Mercer heads back to the dugout during a game between the Indiana University Hoosiers and Ball State Cardinals, at Victory Field in Indianapolis on Tuesday, April 23, 2019. Mp 012 Finals | David Woods/IndyStar

The downward spiral of Indiana baseball (21-29, 7-19) under head coach Jeff Mercer has hit rock bottom, one hopes.

The Hoosiers were swept by rival Purdue in a three-game series where Indiana had a lead in each game. IU led 8-0 on Friday night, 4-0 in the ninth inning on Saturday, and 2-0 and 7-6 on Sunday.

It has been a pattern with Mercer's team this season, and several before, that the bullpen cannot lock games down. Indiana has had a lead in the sixth inning or later in at least 10 of their losses this season.

The three-game sweep dropped Indiana into a three-way tie for last place in the Big Ten and officially knocked them out of contention to qualify for the Big Ten Tournament.

The Hoosiers have one more series left in the 2026 season, a three-game set at home against Illinois, who are playing to keep itself in the Big Ten Tournament. Indiana is playing to stay out of last place.

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Jeff Mercer at Indiana

Career Record at Indiana: 207-149-1 (Eight Seasons)
Big Ten Championships: 1 (2019)
Big Ten Tournament Appearances: 5
NCAA Tournament Appearances: 3 (2019, 2023, 2024)
NCAA Tournament Record: 4-6
Losing Seasons: 2
Players Selected in the MLB Draft: 30
All-Americans: 4

Indiana Has Steadily Gotten Worse Under Mercer

Jeff Mercer was brought to Indiana in 2019 after Chris Lemonis left for Mississippi State. He was hailed as the "Brad Stevens of college baseball" by hiring athletic director Fred Glass.

He took over a program that made it to an NCAA Regional game in five of the last six seasons, including a trip to Omaha in 2013, and hosted a regional in 2013 and 2014.

In year one, he won the Big Ten regular season title and advanced to the NCAA Tournament, but fell in the Louisville Regional with a 1-2 record.

COVID-19 derailed the 2020 season after just 15 games and the 2021 season was largely a disappointment as IU failed to make the NCAA Tournament despite having a program record four players taken in the first 10 rounds of the MLB Draft.

Indiana would not make another NCAA Tournament under Mercer until 2023, when they nearly knocked off Kentucky, but punted their chance to knock Kentucky out and head to a super regional.

Indiana made the 2024 NCAA Tournament, but was overpowered by Tennessee and have not been back since. There has been a steady decline in the quality of his teams as time has gone on.

IU Baseball Can't Put It All Together

The Mercer Era has been defined by what Indiana cannot do on the baseball field.

Considering the amount of talent that has come through Bloomington, which has been quite substantial, the Hoosiers play subpar baseball.

While IU has shown that it can hit, pitch, and field, it seemingly cannot put it all together for extended periods.

This season, IU ranks 113th in fielding percentage (.973) and has made 47 errors this year. Their pitching staff has walked 250 batters and hit another 90.

The staff ERA is 6.71, and that is after Mercer brought in a new pitching coach to fix that issue.

The team consistently makes the same mistakes every season, and that is an indictment of coaching.

The built-in excuse has been that Indiana is a cold-weather team and does not get to practice outside as often as other teams. However, that does not really matter when 15 of the other 17 teams are "cold weather" teams.

Too Much Talent to Be This Bad

Coming into this season, there have been 30 MLB Draft picks and four All-Americans to come out of Mercer's program. Yes, some of those could be credited to the previous staff, but Mercer has brought plenty of talent to Bloomington.

Indiana should not be this bad.

Mercer has ties to the Indiana Bulls, the state's best youth developmental program. He has brought in some of the best players around the country as well.

While some of those players have moved up to professional baseball, there are others who left the program to play their college baseball elsewhere.

No matter what, Indiana baseball should be far better than it was this season.