Indiana baseball (25-12) collected its eighth straight victory with a 14-3 blowout win over Ball State (23-13) Tuesday night at Bart Kaufman Field.
Here are three things we learned from the Hoosiers' crushing of the Cardinals.
1. Tommy Sommer Looks Like Himself Again
The sophomore left-handed pitcher has been gradually working his way back into starting shape after tearing his meniscus last month, and Tuesday night marked arguably his best of the season.
He threw a career-high 10 strikeouts in his first start since March 3 while tying his season-high for innings pitched with six. Overall, he's struck out 20, walked two and allowed just two collectively across the three games he's managed to pitch six innings this season.
"Going back to fastballs inside early in the first inning was really strong, and then that sets up the other outer half of the plate for my changeup and then coming back with a curveball a third time through," Sommer said. "Just keeping guys off balance as much as possible. The idea wasn't to get strikeouts. I've been pitching to contact all year, but it just happened to be that way. But I'm happy to get strong outings early. Putting up big numbers as a team is always fun."
2. Scotty Bradley Continues To Make The Most Of His Return To The Starting Lineup
It was an efficient game for the Pennington, N.J., native, who finished a double shy of hitting for the cycle. The junior collected three RBI off three hits and one walk in four at-bats while also posting a perfect fielding percentage.
Indiana is 8-1 since Bradley returned to starting lineup March 29 against Maryland. He's 18 for 48 across those nine games as well.
"I wouldn't say it's too much of a transition (to being a regular in the starting lineup)," Bradley said. "Mentally, it's always keeping yourself ready. At any point in time in baseball your number is going to be called. You have to be able to help the team in any way possible, whether you're playing or not. If you weren't playing in the beginning, it's just ... we have a really good team and there's so much depth and stuff. You just wait your turn, and when your number gets called you just do whatever it takes to help the team."
3. Good Luck Catching Indiana In Long Balls
Indiana expanded its season home run total to 66 with five against Ball State Tuesday night, gaining the national lead in the category. It's also the best in the Big Ten by 27 over Michigan.
Arguably the best of the night was a towering grand slam by Matt Gorski that cleared the scoreboard in left field.
"That was a bit unique, right? That was a bit different," IU head coach Jeff Mercer said. "Matt's a special player, and we all have those. We all ebbs and flows in our personal lives, in everything that we do, and Matt the same thing offensively. Matt's really been working hard. He and I have had some conversations, as well as with the other coaches. You see him in the cages, and I talked to some of the coaches this week and I said, 'Matt's getting right.'
"You could see it in the way his body language is in the at-bats, you could see the way he stays parallel to the plate, you could see in his approaches."
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