Indiana makes strides in pitching, finding identity in Alabama
There were and are many questions surrounding Indiana’s pitching corps after the Hoosiers lost their entire starting rotation and their closer after last season. But, with a young team overall in 2020, head coach Jeff Mercer has said from the beginning that Indiana can’t afford to make excuses if it wants to defend its Big Ten title.
“Nobody’s going to put an asterisk next to the game and say, ‘Well, you played a bunch of freshmen and sophomores,’” Mercer said before the LSU series. “No one’s going to say, ‘Well, you guys didn’t have the experience. We’ll spot you three runs.’ It doesn’t work like that. If we give those guys an excuse, then they have one. We’ve got to be ready to go from the beginning.”
Indiana got a taste of that in Baton Rouge, where No. 11 LSU took two of three against Indiana. But the series finale was won with the Hoosiers’ pitching, primarily sophomore third-day starter Braydon Tucker, who pitched six innings of one-run ball in a 7-2 win.
Mercer said his pitching staff has “good stuff” but that reining it in with the battery could take some time. Already, though, it’s clear that as Mercer, his staff and the team work through the growing pains of having a supremely young roster, the Hoosiers can lean on their pitching early on, after three good outings on the mound in Alabama to sweep the Alabama Invitational.
Tommy Sommer, as he does every weekend, started play on Friday for Indiana and pitched three strong innings before allowing a couple runs to UT-Martin and surrendering the lead in the fourth inning. He was backed up by his teammates, Braden Scott and Connor Manous, who combined to strike out nine of the 18 batters they faced in the last four innings after Indiana regained the lead in the fifth inning.
Gabe Bierman, in game two against South Alabama, struck out 11 batters through six scoreless innings before allowing a couple unearned runs in the seventh and exiting the game, and Tucker stacked another impressive start in game three against Siena, allowing three hits and forcing eight groundouts in five innings.
While pitching at the college level is often fluid and inconsistent from weekend to weekend, getting two consecutive weekends of promising performances from a new rotation and the team’s expected closer is important when Mercer and his staff are still trying to guide the team toward its truest identity at a foundational level.
“I was more impressed than I have been in a long time with our maturity and our intent to execute a plan, whether it worked or it didn’t work,” Mercer said after the LSU series. “From there, you can work.”
After losing much of the team’s offensive production after last season, Mercer had mentioned potentially becoming more “dynamic” on the base paths. The Hoosiers showed steps toward that actualization this weekend, stealing seven bases and notching five doubles. Cole Barr and Elijah Dunham, the bulk of the team’s expected power this season, connected on their first home runs of the season as well. Collin Hopkins was strong behind the plate and collected at least a hit in each game, and Grant Richardson added a home run into the mix too.
In terms of finding wins and developing growth at an individual level, Indiana returns to Bloomington on Wednesday against Butler after having put together an ideal weekend slate down South.
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