IU Baseball Crushes Western Illinois 11-1
After taking two out of three at home against Pacific over the weekend, No. 14 Indiana continued its strong play with an 11-1 win over Western Illinois Wednesday evening at Bart Kaufman Field. The Hoosiers moved to 12-4 on the season with the win, while the Leathernecks dropped to 0-12 with the loss.
Here's what stood out in Indiana's victory:
Offense gets on a roll early: Indiana went through its entire batting order in the bottom of the first. Four runs in the first inning alone were enough for the Hoosier hitters to chase Western Illinois right-handed starting pitcher Jimmy Perkins off the mound by before the that inning could end. Including Perkins, seven of the eight Fighting Leathernecks pitchers last who saw time on the mound Wednesday evening saw one inning or less. IU junior third baseman Luke Miller hit a solo home run 440 feet deep to right field in the bottom of the fourth for the first homer by a Hoosier at Bart Kaufman Field this season.
Wyatt Cross has a strong day at the plate: On an individual level, perhaps no Hoosier had a better offensive performance than Cross. He accounted for three of Indiana's 9 RBI, two of them coming on a two-RBI double down the right field line after Miller's home run in the bottom of the fourth. He also scored three runs, one of which came on an error by Western Illinois right fielder Drue Galassi. Cross also provided strong defense at catcher and, more importantly, gave regular starting catcher Ryan Fineman a chance to rest ahead of this weekend's three-game home series against Northern Illinois.
Connor Manous makes his first start: The freshman right-hander tossed four shutout innings with one strikeout and just three hits allowed in his fourth appearance of the season and second at Bart Kaufman Field. In his three appearances prior to Wednesday's game, he had been a solid performer for IU's bullpen with four strikeouts and five hits, three walks and two earned runs allowed in 4 1/3 innings. In his first home appearance - IU's 8-3 loss to Cincinnati - Manous helped settle IU down a bit, striking out two of the five batters he faced while allowing just one hit, one earned run and one walk in 1 1/3 innings. He also threw 16 of his 29 pitches for strikes. On Wednesday, he threw strikes on 35 of his 48 pitches.
Nick Eaton makes his Bart Kaufman Field debut: The heralded freshman from Indianapolis Cathedral came on in the ninth to close for the Hoosiers and delivered by striking out two batters and forcing the third to ground out. It was his first appearance for IU since March 4 at San Diego.
Matt Gorski extends hit streak to nine games: The sophomore outfielder hit a double to left field, a single to center and added a sac-fly RBI to his stat line. As impressive as that streak is, what stood out even more was probably the play he made from left field throwing a runner out at home and prevent him from scoring in the top of the first. Still, with hitting streak extended, Gorski also improved his batting average to .375 (21 of 56) on the season.
Key Quotes
On the Hoosiers' defensive play Wednesday night:
"Well that’s the speech I just gave, when you play that many guys on a really windy sunny day - the sun was affecting some stuff - for us to play great defense was the biggest piece of the day for us." -- IU head coach Chris Lemonis
"It was awesome. We’d been kind of struggling defensively a little bit. We got after it at practice the other day, so it was good to see it pay off." -- Gorski
On the Hoosiers' offensive play Wednesday night:
"I told them, some of our best at bats were taking a walk, just not swinging out the of zone, taking what the other team gives us and just keeping the inning going. And then we had some big hits with guys out there." -- Lemonis
On the young arms and Manous' start:
"Man, I thought Grant Sloan was one of the better ones we had out there. He came in and pounded the zone. Nick Eaton at the end there was really good too. And good to have Timmy (Herrin) back out there too.
"(Manous) just competed. In this wind, he’s a really good breaking ball pitcher. He struggled to find the breaking ball the first couple of innings, and then in the fourth seemed to find it and have one of his better innings of the day." -- Lemonis
On the play from left field:
"Yeah, I was just trying to hit the cutoff, and then I was like, 'I don’t know where he’s going.' But, it was fine. Whatever." -- Gorski
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