Fineman, Herrin Lead No. 8 Hoosiers to 3-0 Win Over Irish

Tuesday, April 17

Indianapolis, Ind.

7 p.m.

Indiana University

27-6

Notre Dame

15-22

Notre Dame

Indiana

Fineman, Herrin Lead No. 8 Hoosiers to 3-0 Win Over Irish

4/17/2018 11:04:00 PM | Baseball

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By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

INDIANAPOLIS – Given the uniform sets Tuesday night, Indiana in red and Notre Dame in green, it looked like Christmas in April at Victory Field.

Except that IU wasn't in a gift-giving mood.

Indiana got another stellar start from junior Tim Herrin, strong relief pitching and played suffocating defense in shutting out the Irish, 3-0.

The Hoosiers now lead the nation in earned-run-average at 2.27 (with a bullpen ERA of 1.55). And their 27-6 start matches the program's best since 1987 (a pretty good year for IU athletics, all-around.)

All of which left IU coach Chris Lemonis – who actually likens himself to "The Kool-Aid Man' more than Santa Claus when wearing the all-red suits – understandably jolly post-game.

"I just think we're very consistent," said Lemonis, whose team is currently riding its third seven-game winning streak of the season. "So we get a good start and good relief pitching.

"And I think the biggest piece right now is defense. We're starting to really play defensively and not hurt ourselves that way. Our offense has a lot of different ways to win."

Junior catcher Ryan Fineman gave Indiana all the offense it needed with a two-run homer in the sixth.

On a cold night when batted balls weren't carrying well, Fineman's rocket shot easily carried the left field wall.

"I ran into a good fastball," Fineman recalled. "I was missing them the whole night, so it was nice to finally hit one good."

The blast also scored leadoff man Logan Kaletha, who had worked one of his three walks on the evening. "He had some really tough at-bats today," Lemonis said of Kaletha, who has reached base in roughly half his at-bats this season. "I think that may have turned that inning around. I think it was a 10 or 11 pitch at-bat where he got on base in front of Fineman."

Fineman's homer came off Anthony Holubecki, who was in his first inning of relief after ND starter Zack Martin matched Herrin in a terrific pitching duel through five innings.

Martin allowed only one Hoosier hit, and that was all the Irish could get off Herrin in six innings. Herrin finished with just one walk and six strikeouts.

"Everything felt good today," Herrin said of his pitching arsenal. "I was able to fill up the zone. I was able to depend upon my fastball today. It had a lot of movement.

"Being able to throw that for a strike, then come back with a slider, with different movement, I think really helped me a lot."

So did a victorious performance March 28 in IU's 5-3 win over Indiana State at Terre Haute, Herrin's hometown.

"He's from Terre Haute and so we put him out there in relief at Terre Haute and it's like he got his confidence back," Lemonis said. "This game is so much about confident. He has the ability. Now that he feels good about himself, he seems to pitch a little bit better."

Herrin credited working with IU assistant coach Kyle Bunn and catcher Fineman for much of that.

"Really just working with Coach Bunn, throwing my bullpen sessions, then going out in games and being able to execute like I've been throwing," Herrin said. "That really builds confidence for you, and I've been able to build on that since my outing at Indiana State and so on.

"(Fineman) knows the game, probably more than anybody I know. He knows when your pitches are working or not, communicates that with Coach Bunn, and really makes the game a lot easier. Takes a lot of stress off of you when they're calling the right pitch at the right time."

Herrin also didn't mind Fineman chipping in a two-run homer.

"That does help a lot, too, yeah," he said with a grin.

Asked about Indiana's overall pitching success, Herrin said:

"The biggest thing is just executing pitches when we can. Keeping it in the strike zone. And we have, I think, one of the better defenses in the country. I can think of four of five balls today where my defense made a great play behind me. They really pick me up. Credit that as much as my pitching."

Typifying that Tuesday was a wonderful, diving, over-the-shoulder grab by second sacker Matt Lloyd to rob David LaManna of a hit to start the Notre Dame sixth.

Notre Dame (15-22) did load the bases with two outs against B.J. Sabol in the seventh, but he induced a foul pop-up to thwart the threat.

IU concluded the scoring in its half of the seventh as Scotty Bradley hit a leadoff single to center, was sacrificed to second by Drew Ashley, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Justin Walker's groundout.

Sabol supplied an uneventful eighth, then Lloyd then went to the mound to close it out in the ninth.

Indiana's bullpen has allowed just one earned run in its last 27 innings of work.

"I didn't realize that," Lemonis said. "I just run 'em out there and see."

Lemonis also didn't know off-hand about his team posting the best Indiana baseball start since 1987 (also 27-6, with that team finishing 43-17 and third in the Big Ten) heading into today's 6:05 home game against Ball State. Neither did Fineman.

"It's awesome," Fineman said. "But I definitely want it to be our best finish."