Indiana Baseball Begins Big Ten Tournament With Extra-Inning Thriller Against Top-Seeded Maryland
As Hunter Jessee chopped a ground ball to first base, Evan Goforth sprinted home like his season depended on it. He snuck his hand to the outside corner of home plate on a feet-first slide, just before Maryland catcher Luke Shliger's tag swiped across the plate.
Jessee and Goforth gave Indiana a one-run lead in the 10th inning of its opening round game of the Big Ten Tournament against the top-seeded Maryland Terrapins. However, Maryland would fight back by tying the game in the 10th on an Ian Petrutz single. The Terrapins loaded the bases in the 11th, Petrutz took a pitch off his elbow guard, and the winning run came home. It was a valiant effort by Indiana in this No. 1 versus No. 8 matchup, but one too many mistakes at the end cost the Hoosiers in this 6-5 loss.
Ty Bothwell started the game for Indiana, allowing a double to Maryland's leadoff hitter Shliger. Nick Lorusso gave Maryland an early lead, singling home Shliger in the first. The Terrapins added three more runs in the fourth on a trio of RBI doubles, concluding with Big Ten Player of the Year Chris Alleyne. Bothwell's night was over after 3.2 innings, giving up seven hits, four runs, two walks and six strikeouts.
The Indiana bats battled back against one of the top pitchers in the Big Ten, Jason Savacool. It started with Phillip Glasser reaching on a Maryland error, allowing Tyler Doanes to score Indiana's first run of the game in the sixth. Freshman Carter Mathison crushed his 18th home run of the season over the right field wall, and Indiana tied the game in the seventh when Matthew Ellis scored on a balk, followed by a Glasser RBI single.
Indiana reliever Reese Sharp kept the Hoosiers in the game with one of his most impressive outings of the season. Sharp struck out nine Terrapins in 5.1 innings of work, allowing five hits, one run and zero walks. He was fired up after striking out Maryland's three-hitter Lorusso with a runner on second in the bottom of the eighth in a tie game.
With the Hoosiers clinging to a one-run lead in the bottom of the tenth, Indiana's typical Friday starter Jack Perkins entered in this do-or-die scenario. Perkins took the mound with a runner on second, and on an 0-2 count, Petrutz lined a breaking ball into right field. Jessee had trouble fielding the ball, and Maryland tied the game.
In the 11th, Indiana had runners on first and second with one out when Doanes stepped to the plate. Doanes lined the ball to right field, and Ellis hustled around third base in an attempt to give Indiana the lead. But Maryland right fielder Troy Schreffler's throw was on the money. It perfectly one-hopped the catcher, who tagged Ellis out at home. Ellis thought he snuck his hand to home plate before the tag, but after review, Ellis was called out.
Perkins stayed in the game in the bottom of the 11th and loaded the bases after the first three batters. The first out of the inning was a strikeout by Perkins, which set a Big Ten record for most strikeouts in a game with 18. Bothwell struck out six, followed by nine from Sharp and three from Perkins.
But Perkins would hit the next batter with the bases loaded, allowing the winning run to walk home. It was a crushing way for Indiana to lose it's opening round of the Big Ten Tournament, as the Hoosiers nearly upset the No. 1 overall seed and a top 10 team in the country.
With this loss, Indiana now moves to the losers' bracket with a chance to still make a run to the championship game. The Hoosiers will play Illinois on Friday at 6 p.m. ET on the Big Ten Network in an elimination game. Indiana won two out of three games in its series against Illinois that began on April 29.
In that series, Indiana won game one 7-6 on a Josh Pyne walk-off single, lost game two 18-10 and took the series on Sunday with a 11-7 win behind two home runs from Carter Mathison.
Stories related to Indiana baseball:
- FOUR FRESHMEN, ELLIS, DOANES EARN BIG TEN HONORS: Josh Pyne, Carter Mathison, Brock Tibbitts and Evan Goforth were named to the All-Big Ten Freshman Team on Monday. Catcher Matthew Ellis earned third-team All-Big Ten honors, and Tyler Doanes was Indiana's recipient of the Sportsmanship Award. CLICK HERE
- INDIANA SWEPT, QUALIFIES FOR B1G TOURNAMENT: Indiana was swept at Iowa this weekend, losing its first series in over a month. The Hoosiers finished with a 10-14 record in Big Ten play, which was enough to sneak into the Big Ten tournament as the No. 8 seed. CLICK HERE
- FOLLOWING WHALEN'S LEAD: Leadoff hitter and center fielder Bobby Whalen has started every game for Indiana this season, leading the Hoosiers with toughness and a "win at any cost" mentality. They'll continue to follow his lead into the final regular season series at Iowa beginning at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday.