Brian Hobbie Tosses A Gem In Hoosier Victory Over Middle Tennessee
Senior reliever Luke Stephenson said Friday night following a 5-3 loss to Middle Tennessee that he was looking forward to seeing junior Brian Hobbie on the mound in Saturday’s game two of the series. He had a hunch there was good things to come.
And he was right.
Hobbie put together the best start of his career, allowing just one run off three hits and a walk over six innings. It was more than suitable to pace Indiana (5-7-1) to a 12-1 victory over Middle Tennessee (8-7) to set up a Sunday rubber game.
“A great start for Brian Hobbie," head coach Chris Lemonis said. "I thought that was the best start of his career."
Hobbie allowed a leadoff walk on five pitches to Middle Tennessee senior shortstop Riley Delgado before retiring the next eight consecutive batters, striking out three during that time. Meanwhile, the Indiana offense was well on its way to putting up a dozen runs in support in what was a no-pressure outing for Hobbie.
Delgado picked up the Blue Raiders’ first hit with two away in the third by doubling down the left field line passed IU sophomore third baseman Luke Miller. It was a controversial late call that IU head coach Lemonis deemed worthy of arguing, as it almost appeared to be a foul ball.
The double ultimately did no damage. Hobbie managed to get Middle Tennessee junior second baseman Kevin Sullivan to line out to IU freshman first baseman Matt Gorski. He stranded another runner who reached on a throwing in the fourth inning before cruising through the fifth, facing the minimum as he went.
Middle Tennessee’s only damage against Hobbie came with a small rally in the sixth while trailing 12-0 at the time.
“It's definitely a lot easier just go right after people when you have the run support we had today," Hobbie said.
Freshman catcher Aaron Antonini hit a high chopper to second that allowed him enough time to reach before junior infielder Colby Stratten could fire off a throw to first. Delgado, the lone player with consistent success against Hobbie all afternoon, hit a seeing-eye single to right field to set up runners on first and third without anyone out.
Sullivan then grounded out to the right side, plating the lone charged run to Hobbie all day. He then got sophomore center fielder Austin Dennis to fly out to right before sophomore third baseman Drew Huff grounded out to second to end the inning.
“I felt good today," Hobbie said. "We learned some things about the way they hit, their approach, yesterday (in a 5-3 loss). I just kind of threw the ball in more. That worked well for me today."
Hobbie wasn’t particularly dominant on the afternoon but didn’t need to be. He managed to throw strikes without leaving anything too easy to hit over the plate with a heavy dose of power sinkers that allowed his defense to do the bulk of the work behind him.
Hobbie got nine batters to ground out, six to fly out and then struck out his trio early on. Statistically, it was the most productive start of the season in four tries thus far.
He set new season bests in innings pitched and runs allowed while lowing his ERA from 5.4 to 4.29 en route to his first win of the season.
"He's touched on it, but just to put it together from start to finish was nice to see," Lemonis said.
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