Indiana Baseball Review: Opportunity Lost As Hoosiers Are Swept At Iowa

Indiana baseball has had a wildly uneven season, but the Hoosiers had a chance to point themselves in the right direction and make a run at a postseason bid if it could have success in its weekend series at Iowa.

This would not be easy, but the reward if the Hoosiers could pull it off would be significant.

Iowa is on top of the Big Ten – the only school among the 13 who play baseball which is above the new West Coast entries to the league.

The Hawkeyes don’t have a great RPI, but a series win or sweep for Indiana would have put the Hoosiers safely in the top half of the Big Ten. Quality wins would have been added to a program that badly needs them.

Alas, none of this happened. Instead of a positive bump, the Hoosiers suffered the worst-case scenario.

The Hawkeyes swept the Hoosiers in the weekend series at Iowa’s Banks Field. Iowa won 2-1 in a taut, 10-inning game in the series opener, but after that, the Hoosiers were not competitive. Iowa won 13-2 on Saturday and 10-0 on Sunday – both games won via the 10-run rule in the seventh inning.

Coming off a 14-4 victory over Ball State at Victory Field in Indianapolis Wednesday, the Hoosiers headed to Iowa with plenty of wind in their sails.

The series opener was a classic college baseball Friday matchup of top pitching. Indiana used a staff approach as starter Pete Haas and reliever Ryan Kraft held Iowa scoreless until the sixth inning.

Indiana had taken a 1-0 lead in the first inning as a Tyler Cerny single drove home leadoff hitter Will Moore.

Iowa tied the game in the sixth off of reliever Gavin Seebold as Daniel Rogers hit a solo home run. Despite that, Seebold pitched well as he had seven strikeouts in 4 1/3 innings of work.

Indiana coach Jeff Mercer stuck with Seebold, but he was charged with a hard-luck loss. After an Iowa walk and single in the 10th inning, Iowa’s Blake Guerin won the game with a bunt single off Indiana reliever Brayton Thomas.

Saturday and Sunday’s games were forgettable for the Hoosiers.

Iowa scored in five of the seven innings played on Saturday as Indiana pitchers Cole Gilley (seven earned runs), Aydan Decker-Petty, Thomas and Seth Benes all gave up at least one earned run.

It was more of the same on Sunday. Indiana starter Ben Grable struck out eight, but also allowed six earned runs. Jackson Yarberry only allowed one run earned, but Iowa scored three unearned runs to win by run-rule. Indiana’s offense was put in the deep freeze by Iowa pitchers Reece Beuter and Ben Detaeye, who combined for seven innings of shutout pitching.

The series victory propelled the Hawkeyes (29-12, 20-4) to a 2 1/2-game lead over UCLA in the Big Ten title chase.

For Indiana, the series was a disaster. The Hoosiers (23-21, 12-12) failed to get any quality wins and put their place in the Big Ten Tournament in danger. Only 12 teams make the tournament. Indiana is tied with Penn State in eighth place, but the Hoosiers only have a 1 1/2-game cushion to the cut line for the conference tournament.

Indiana is 1-5 in Quad 1 games and has a No. 83 ranking in the RPI. That is well short of what Indiana would need to qualify for a NCAA regional.

Indiana will take a break from the Big Ten wars this coming weekend. After a Tuesday road game at Evansville, Indiana will play a three-game series at Abilene Christian of the Western Athletic Conference. The Wildcats have won 10 of their last 11 games.