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Last year, Indiana finished the season 27-32. On April 23, 2022, they held a 16-22 record coming off a grueling 10 straight road game stretch. Fast forward a year later and Indiana’s first two months of the season are looking very different.

The Hoosiers have a 30-11 record as of April 21, tying their win total from last year. Indiana is playing some of their best baseball of the last five years and the focus on this year's team continues as they add more wins to their name.

The reason for Indiana's success? Believing in their talent and growing the program from the ground up. Head coach Jeff Mercer knew he wanted it to be this way. He’s a believer in bringing young guys to the team and having them develop into great players during their time in Bloomington.

Mercer took over the program back in 2019 and made it clear how he wanted to build his teams. The concept is simple, dabble a little bit in the transfer portable while having your main focus on recruiting high school players from across the country so that they can spend the next three or four years at Indiana developing. Well, entering his fifth season as head coach, this year we’ve seen Mercer’s plan work quite well.

Devin Taylor, Tyler Cerny, Carter Mathison, and Brock Tibbitts, are a few guys who came into this system doing that exact same thing. This year has been a testament to what Mercer is trying to build. The Hoosiers are playing great baseball and a lot of that is due to the young guys on the team.

Just like any other coach in the country, when Mercer begins searching for new players he looks for certain attributes. Raw athleticism, mobility, and of course a few baseball-specific traits like rotational power, strong mechanics, and, hey, even pants size. Players have to be talented but winning goes beyond that.

“I would say you're looking for 'Does the guy genuinely enjoy playing the game?'” Mercer said. “His character his integrity on the field. Is he passionate about playing? Does he care about winning? Is he more interested in winning than looking the part?”

Even from a foundational standpoint, a kid's background has a lot to do with what Indiana is looking for. Family is one of the most important things in Mercer's life and the same can be said for the type of players he's looking for.

He wants guys who share the same values as him and looks for kids who come from similar backgrounds.

“You sit down with their mom and dad. Are they disciplined people? Are they structured people? Do they value the same things that you value? As a coach, when they say they're gonna call you, do they call on time? Do they call two days late and do they communicate as you would expect someone that you would trust to communicate? Do they tell the truth? Are they honest? Do they have integrity in the recruiting process? Do they act in a way that you would like someone to represent the program and the community?"

Being a manager isn't an easy task. Having to manage 40 different college kids while trying to put together a competitive team can have its difficulties. The truth is that at the end of the day, only nine guys will be out on the field. Every player who takes that next step to play college sports wants to play but sometimes it doesn’t work out that way.

When you build your program around the development of your young players, some guys will play and others won’t, that’s the truth. But Mercer has found a way to go about these situations. Communication.

Mercer wants to have honesty between him and his players. When things aren't going according to the plan, it can be difficult for those players on the team but that’s when these types of conversations come into play.

“I think a lot of times, the times I've struggled as a coach are the times that I didn't do enough to communicate,” Mercer said. “We have to remember what it was like to be a player and to be young. I think that gives me a little bit of an advantage beginning one of the youngest head coaches in the country where I can remember what it was like to play. What you forget as a coach is you forget that things that you think are obvious, are not obvious to the player. So I've tried really hard to bring those guys in and explain to them exactly what the situation is and what's going on. Unapologetically."

Indiana took this route to build its program for a few reasons. To put it in simple words, the Hoosiers play in the Big Ten and don’t have the same rules or flexibility as other conferences.

Conferences like the SEC have different ways they go about signing players to a scholarship. Each school also has a different way on how they go about using their money. The Hoosiers, as well as the rest of the Big Ten, have a four-year guarantee scholarship offer for their players. So the only way for the program to work is to believe in your guys and trust the process.

Mercer had a conversation with his staff about how they wanted to structure things after his first year with the Hoosiers. They talked about going after high-level players at the junior college level who were there to take the next step but because of financials, that option didn't make a lot of sense for Indiana.

Mercer and his staff want to compete and so the only way to do that is to build from the ground up.

“I want to be able to compete at a national level,” Mercer said. “I want to win at a national level. I think Indiana is capable of doing that. So how do you do that? Well, for us, it's going to be through elite high school players and through player development. So we go recruit nationally, and you find your best players that can hit your high character and your integrity. And then you allow those guys to play. So for the model to work for your program to work, you have to allow those young guys to play and to grow up you have to start at zero.

Looking that the team now, this 2023 season has been a prime example of what Mercer is trying to do. Build his program through development. Taylor has been a standout freshman with already three Big Ten Freshman of the Year awards. Josh Pyne continues to be a force at third base with stellar defense and guys like Tibbitts and Bobby Whalen are far and away from a sophomore slump.

In whatever direction you look at, Indiana's progression took a vast jump this year. The underclassmen are showing the country the talent that they have and with the older guys right there in the mix, it's created a nice winning recipe for the Hoosiers.

There’s still a long way season ahead for the Hoosiers but as of now, Mercer’s plan is working.

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