Peter Serruto's Late Blast Gives Indiana 5-3 Win Over Kentucky in NCAA Tournament
LEXINGTON, Ky. – Peter Serruto faced an 0-2 count as the largest crowd in Kentucky Proud Park history rose to its feet. Supportive claps from those wearing cream and crimson were drowned out by the thousands cheering for Serruto to whiff at strike three and maintain Kentucky's lead.
Meanwhile, Serruto controlled his breathing as a voice in his head replayed "don't come off the fastball," over and over. Serruto took three balls – one on a checked swing that came inches away from ending the inning – from Kentucky's ace Zack Lee, who had allowed just three hits in a 25-batter stretch before Serruto dug in.
On a 3-2 count, Serruto got the fastball he was looking for and drove Lee's pitch the opposite way. The ball carried over the right field fence and into a bullpen of elated Hoosiers, who fist pumped and high-fived as they took the lead over the NCAA Tournament's No. 12 overall seed in their home ballpark. A raucous, record-setting crowd turned into stunned silence.
Serruto's three-run home run in the bottom of the seventh – the No. 1 moment in his baseball career, he said – proved to be the game-winning blast in Indiana's 5-3 victory over Kentucky.
"Once I got a fastball there and delivered, it was just kind of like a dream come true," Serruto said. "Just running around the bases and enjoying that moment with my teammates."
Phillip Glasser, looking on from the on-deck circle, had a perfect view of the moment.
"When he was down two strikes and he took a really good pitch and the crowd's crazy," Glasser said. "But I saw him just looking at his bat and he was cool. And I was, like, 'He's going to get this done.' I don't know about an oppo jack, but I knew that he wasn't going to give that at-bat away because of his emotions."
After Indiana's Peter Serruto (6) crosses home after hitting a three-run homer in the seventh, he gets a hug by teammates Josh Pyne, center, and Hunter Jessee as the Hoosiers went on to defeat Kentucky 5-3 Saturday night in the 2023 NCAA Regional at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington.
Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
With this win, the Hoosiers advance to the Lexington Regional Championship on Sunday at 6 p.m. ET at Kentucky Proud Park, where they'll play the winner of No. 1 Kentucky versus No. 3 West Virginia. Because the regional stage of the NCAA Tournament is double-elimination, an Indiana loss on Sunday would mean a rematch on Monday, with the winner advancing to the Super Regionals.
Usually regarded for his defense behind the plate and senior leadership, Serruto being the one to come through with a clutch home run added to the magic of Indiana's NCAA Tournament run. He entered the game with the lowest batting average in the starting lineup at .266, as well as the fewest home runs, with two.
Serruto wasn't always expected to be in this spot, either. Catcher Matthew Ellis, a preseason All-American this year, suffered a season-ending hand injury, and AJ Shepard, a highly-regarded freshman catcher, has missed the whole year with an arm injury. That's left Serruto to carry the catching duties as a one-man-show for most of the season, which made Saturday's crucial home run even more special from Indiana coach Jeff Mercer's perspective.
"I've learned in my life that God works in mysterious ways," Mercer said. "Sometimes it's meant to be. There couldn't be a better kid in the world than Pete Serruto to do that ... He's so dutiful. All he cares about is winning. I asked him to lay a bunt down and he doesn't care. I asked him to hit and run, doesn't care. No matter what it is, he's such a team-first guy. And when you have guys that are invested into doing the right things and they're competitive – like you talk about the two-strike approach – and just fight, fight, fight, good things happen. You put yourself in a position to be successful. I don't know that I had envisioned that. But we've been in so many close games, and we've competed our way through those things that every now and then you capture a little bit of magic and it happened tonight for Pete."
Serruto's big swing was especially important for an Indiana lineup that struggled for most of the night. After a Glasser home run on the first pitch of the game, Lee dominated the Hoosiers up and down the order. He struck out nine batters in seven innings of work with zero walks and allowed just one run before Serruto's home run.
"I don't know that we've had realistically as poor of a performance offensively the entire year than we had tonight," Mercer said.
Indiana trains its hitters heavily on hitting fastballs, Mercer said, which leads to many opponents often opting for a heavy dose of off-speed pitches. In Lee's case, that meant his changeup, which Mercer said acts more like a breaking ball. Indiana changed course and treated Lee's changeup like a breaking ball, but the adjustment was largely ineffective. Mercer said Indiana struggled against Lee's slider, too, which he was able to command on the outside corner.
"[Lee] was on his game," Mercer said. "He was terrific. So I just kept telling the guys you've got to get to the seventh in a two-run game. Get to the seventh in a two-run game and find a way late to push through. Honestly, I was hoping they'd go to the pen."
And that's exactly what Indiana did. The Hoosiers trailed Kentucky 3-1 entering the bottom of the seventh, when Serruto came through with what turned out to be the game-winning hit.
Make no mistake, defeating an SEC power like Kentucky took stellar pitching efforts, too. Left-hander Ryan Kraft hadn't pitched since May 18 due to forearm tightness, but he started Saturday and gave Indiana four solid innings. Kraft allowed three hits and one run with one walk and two strikeouts.
Indiana starting pitcher Ryan Craft throws towards home plate against Kentucky. The Hoosiers defeated Kentucky 5-3 Saturday night in the 2023 NCAA Regional at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington.
Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
Senior right-hander Craig Yoho relieved Kraft in the fifth and did his job to keep Indiana in the game. Yoho pitched 2.1 innings, allowing two runs but just one earned. He walked two batters and struck out four, escaping a few jams in the middle innings.
Following Serruto's home run, Mercer called on freshman right-hander Connor Foley to close the game. In a pressure-packed scenario, Foley allowed three base runners in 2.2 innings, while striking out two batters. His outing wasn't without a few moments of panic, though, as he hit two batters in the ninth inning.
With a chance to take the lead, Kentucky's Devin Burkes drove the ball to deep right field, but Indiana's late-inning defensive replacement Morgan Colopy made the grab while crashing into the wall. Mercer considers Colopy one of the two best defensive right fielders he's ever coached, so he was confident Colopy would catch the ball as long as it stayed in the park, which was no sure thing.
Kentucky's All-SEC second baseman Emilien Pitre gave Indiana another scare in the next at-bat, belting the ball to deep left field. The ball hooked foul at the last second, then Pitre popped out to shortstop to end the game.
Foley said it was a challenge to pitch in such an electric atmosphere, and he, too, thought Kentucky might have taken the lead with near-home runs in the ninth. But the freshman stepped up in a big moment and helped deliver an Indiana victory.
"I'd be lying to you if I didn't think they were gone," Foley said. "We have a great defense. Morgan made two spectacular catches out there. And Phil, the last out. And then everybody else, just spectacular defense. It's so easy to pitch with those guys behind you. I was really confident. And they all supported me and encouraged me the entire outing."
The Indiana bench celebrate after Phillip Glasser's catch in the ninth inning sealed the win as the Hoosiers defeated Kentucky 5-3 Saturday night in the 2023 NCAA Regional at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington.
Matt Stone/Courier Journal / USA TODAY NETWORK
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