'Ticked' Hoosiers Aim to Make a Big NCAA Tourney Run

By: Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - The day's work was over and Logan Sowers chilled in a hot Bart Kaufman Field dugout.

A noon sun left just a sliver of dugout shadow and little relief, but Sowers didn't care. Neither did coach Chris Lemonis and the rest of the baseball Hoosiers.

NCAA tourney opportunity had arrived.

"We're excited," the senior outfielder says. "We're really looking forward to the opportunity."

IU (38-17) opens in Austin, Texas, with third-seed Texas A&M (39-20) on Friday at 5 p.m. on ESPN2. Top-seed Texas (37-20) faces No. 4 Texas Southern (27-26).

The winner of the double-elimination tourney will face the winner of the regional hosted by Mississippi (46-15), the No. 4 overall seed.

Indiana has its eighth NCAA tourney shot, and fifth in the last six years, and resolve is the word of the moment.

Actually, "ticked" comes closer, but that misses the point, which is that the Hoosiers have one final chance to make program history (can you say a second College World Series appearance to join the 2013 team), and no one wants to blow it.

Last week's 1-2 Big Ten tourney disappointment, which followed an unsatisfying fifth-place regular season conference finish, is a final motivator.

"We're upset," Sowers says. "We went into the Big Ten Tournament wanting to win it. We thought we were one of the best teams in the Big Ten."

He pauses.

"I still think we are. It's exciting to be in a regional and be able to prove yourself."

Proving started with Monday's 8 a.m. feisty workout designed to blast away the flaws that had surfaced in the conference tourney, and occasionally during the season.

Specifically it centered on hitting. In three Big Ten tourney games, IU was just 8-for-43 with runners on base, and just 6-for-29 with runners in scoring position.

That's not nearly good enough, especially for a veteran team built to hit and pitch like few others in college baseball.

"We wanted to win the Big Ten Tournament," Lemonis says, "and when we didn't, it made us a little, I guess the word is (ticked). We practiced a little harder. We got after it from coaches to players to everyone else. I take accountability for that and for having us ready to play."

Monday's early practice set a tone. So will middle-of-the-afternoon workouts in the following days to help acclimate to the anticipated Texas heat and sharpen crucial focus.

"We're addressing (mindset)," Lemonis says "We faced a couple of good arms (in the Big Ten tourney). A couple of situations got away from us.

"This is a new trip. These guys get to have fun and execute. We've executed all year long. I'm not worried about that.

"We had to get back to the basics."

Specifically IU worked on executing with runners on second and third with less than two outs, with the bases loaded and less than two outs, and with a runner on first and no outs.

"We got here early, got a good stretch in and started getting after it," Sowers says. "We did a lot of situational hitting. We had a scrimmage with situations and live pitching. Game situations. Stuff that will come up this weekend and things we'll have to do better than we did last weekend."

One advantage to not advancing far in conference tourney play, Lemonis says, was not wearing out your pitching staff.

"We're a lot more rested. That's the one benefit. It's good for the group."

There's potentially plenty of good ahead for a team that began the season as the favorite to win the Big Ten regular season and tournament titles.

That didn't happen, and a nine-loss-in-11-game slide cost the Hoosiers a chance to host a regional.

Still, with a No. 29 RPI and a healthy lineup, they knew they would make the 64-team field.

On Monday, they discovered when and where.

"Some years you don't know you're in," Lemonis says. "When you know you're in, everybody is trying to guess. You get a lot of, 'Where are we going? Who do you want to play?'

"It was fun to see our name come up."

Lemonis says he avoids trying to figure out the Hoosiers' seed or location. Always has. Always will.

"I never look (at projections). I feel like I'm wasting my time.

"My wife thinks I'm lying. She tries to tell me where we're going. It doesn't matter because it's not true. I look at who's hosting. I look at our RPI."

The No. 2 seed, Lemonis says, is a reward for the quality of IU's schedule as well as its play. The Hoosiers played three top-20 teams in the first couple of weeks of the season, then three more in the last month.

"The No. 2 seed was huge," Lemonis says. "That was on my mind overnight -- I hope we're a 2. There haven't been many No. 2 seeds in Indiana history. It says a lot about our resume that we built all year long. It says a lot about our kids and their effort."

IU's NCAA tourney experience will help in Texas, Sowers says. This will be his third NCAA appearance.

"The atmospheres have been awesome. It's really something to look forward to, especially for the younger guys who haven't experienced it."

One highlight will be playing at Texas's UFCU Disch-Falk Field, which basically seats 7,000. The Longhorns averaged more than 6,000 in attendance this past season.

Sowers knows all about Texas' rich baseball tradition that includes six national championships, with the last one coming in 2005.

"When I was growing up, they were so good," he says. "It was a lot of fun to watch them. Now we get to go there and play. It's exciting."

Lemonis feels that excitement. He and assistant coach Kyle Cheesebrough are from Texas.

"I grew up in Houston," Lemonis says. "Coach Cheesebrough grew up in Dallas. Neither one of us have ever played there.

"I grew up wanting to be a Longhorn. It should be a lot of fun."

As for Texas A&M, it went 3-1 in the SEC tourney with wins over Vanderbilt, No. 8 Georgia and No. 21 Auburn before losing to No. 4 Mississippi.

The Aggies have three players hitting over .300 in Michael Helman (.366, six home runs, 34 runs batted in), Braden Shewmaker (.329, five homers, team-leading 44 RBI) and Logan Foster (.304, team-high eight homers, 37 runs batted in).

Shewmaker is 12-for-12 on stolen bases. Helman is 12-for-14.

Ace pitcher Mitchell Kilkenny is 8-4 with a 3.00 earned run average and 87 strikeouts in 93 innings. However, he has lost four straight.

John Doxakis is 7-5 with a 2.89 ERA and 80 strikeouts in 87 innings.

IU was one of four Big Ten teams to make the NCAA tourney field. The others were Big Ten tourney champ Minnesota, Purdue and Ohio State.

"It's always hard to make the 64," Lemonis says. "You never take it for granted."

You'd better believe these Hoosiers aren't.

Indiana University Athletics

'Ticked' Hoosiers Aim to Make a Big NCAA Tourney Run

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