Three Takeaways From Indiana Baseball's 8-7 Regional Loss To Illinois State

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LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- No. 2-seed Indiana dropped its NCAA tournament regional opener to No. 3-seed Illinois State 8-7 Friday afternoon at Jim Patterson Stadium.

Here are three takeaways from the Hoosiers' performance.

Known for battling it out against hitters, Milto has been Indiana's Friday starter for a reason. He competes and brings it every time he's on the mound, a 3.51 ERA and the second-most strikeouts on the team with 94.

Uncharacteristically, Friday just wasn't his day.

Milto had only allowed double-digit hits in a single outing just once before all season - 12 against Minnesota on April 26. He gave up 14 against Illinois State.

However, IU head coach Jeff Mercer attributed those struggles to the lack of support Milto's teammates provided him defensively moreso than what Milto himself was doing.

"While Pauly wasn't crisp early, we didn't do a lot to help him, (like not) keeping double plays in older, which you have to against a team like this. And then he settled down," IU head coach Jeff Mercer said. "He settled down and did a fine job. There were three or four innings where he was able to get back to being himself, get the ball down and keep it out of the middle and they weren't able to do as much damage there. It wasn't for a lack of stuff. His stuff was good, just a lack of execution."

Milto tossed 96 pitches across his 5 1/3-inning start, throwing strikes on 67 of them. The seven earned runs allowed tied the Minnesota game for his season-high.

Yes, Indiana had an impressive walk-induced rally in the bottom of the seventh to make this game competitive, but for the first six innings its bats looked listless.

Indiana had 13 strikeouts through its first 16 at-bats. Overall, it had 18 strikeouts to Illinois State's 18 hits.

Sophomore Elijah Dunham was the only Hoosier who consistently made contact, going 3 for 5 with a 2-run home run. Overall, he accounted for three of the Hoosiers' seven RBI.

"Lately, we haven't been hitting that good. I think it fundamentally comes down to our players' confidence," Dunham said. "I feel like a lot of guys are not confident in the box right now. It just kind of looks like they're giving up at-bats. It looks like they're just trying not to strike out, which is not the mentality to have at the plate. Some of our teammates are just hitting like a bunch of babies and it's really frustrating."

Matt Gorski has been spectacular for the Hoosiers all year, earning All-Big Ten second team honors after helping them capture the Big Ten regular season title.

However, the junior outfielder hurt his wrist while trying to make a diving catch in center field in the top of the sixth. He left the game and did not return, later sporting a strap-on cast around his wrist. Mercer characterized the injury as a sprain and said he pulled Gorski out for precuationary reasons - for example, if there was a hairline fracture in Gorski's wrist and Gorski got hit by a pitch.

Gorski is third on the team in home runs with 12 and third in RBI with 45. A determination likely won't be made until after the Hoosiers complete pregame warmups.

"Really tough (to see him go down)," IU junior infielder Scotty Bradley said. "Matt's obviously one of the more talented guys we have. The kid busts his butt every single day and it's really tough to see him go down. But it's next man up. Sam Crail comes in and don't know what will happen tomorrow, but as a collective group we need to pick it up because this season is on the line from every game out from this point, so we need to get it going."

Indiana will face the loser of Louisville vs. Illinois-Chicago tomorrow at 11 a.m. eastern time.

Since regional play is double-elimination, Indiana's season will end if it loses tomorrow morning.

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