Indiana Baseball Knocks Off Maryland 5-1 To Clinch Regular Season Series
There was little drama this time as Indiana defeated Maryland 5-1 Friday afternoon at Bart Kaufman field to clinch the regular season series. The Hoosiers moved to 36-15 overall and 13-9 in Big Ten play with the win, while Maryland dropped to 21-16 overall and 9-13 in conference play.
Here's what stood out from Indiana's win:
Pauly Milto a difference maker: The junior right hander struck out four for IU, and although he allowed seven hits, he surrendered just one walk and one earned run across a 6.0-inning start. At full strength, he's a big part of Indiana's success. Milto threw strikes on 58 of his 91 pitches.
Luke Miller continues to crush the Terps: Two home runs Thursday night apparently weren't enough for the junior infielder, who went ahead and crushed his third of the series in the bottom of the eighth to extend Indiana's lead to 5-1. He was 2 for 4 at the plate Friday afternoon, also hitting a single through the left side in the bottom of the sixth.
Andrew Saalfrank big in relief: The sophomore lefty pitched two scoreless relief innings, striking out five while allowing just one hit and three walks. His five strikeouts were just two shy of his season high (seven vs. Ball State on April 18).
Friday is less stressful for the Hoosiers: A storm-delayed Game 1 which lasted nearly four and a half hours was put behind quickly. Indiana jumped out to an early 1-0 in the bottom of the first off a Matt Gorski RBI groundout. Though Maryland tied with an RBI double to left center in the bottom of the sixth, Indiana responded with a 2-RBI single up the middle from Logan Sowers. A solo home run from Gorski, then Miller's solo shot over the center field wall, pushed the lead to 5-1 and the Hoosiers never relinquished it.
Key Quotes
On Milto and Miller being back at full strength:
"(They're) getting back, and they’re now playing good. Luke got back for a little while, just had to figure his way out, but it’s huge. Luke hit one last week at Nebraska to really help us win the game, had the big one last night, had some good swings today. It’s just a presence, too, in the lineup. Pauly’s given us some tremendous starts. Just competes." -- IU head coach Chris Lemonis
"They've both been huge. Pauly coming back, I feel like that's when we went into the slump when Pauly got hurt. Really awesome having him back and healthy again. Same with Luke. Luke's come back and kind of changed the lineup a little bit. There's more of a power threat in there. That's big time." -- Sowers
On the production from the middle of the batting order of late:
"We've been getting hits with runners on base, RBIs, doubles, hard-hit balls, home runs. Luke has really found his stride swinging the bat really well again, so that's been big for us." -- Sowers
On the recent winning streak after enduring a difficult stretch prior to that (Hoosiers had lost nine of last 11 prior to May 12):
"We went through a rough stretch, but we're playing really good baseball right now and it's a really good time to be heating up." -- Sowers
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