Hoosiers Fall to Gophers in Opener, 7-2

Friday, April 26

Bloomington, Ind.

6:05 p.m.

Indiana University

28-14, 0

Minnesota

18-20, 0

Minnesota

Indiana

4/26/2019 11:00:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score

By Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Friday was post-game fireworks night at Bart Kaufman Field, but Indiana Hoosier hitters never really sparked against Minnesota ace Max Meyer.

Meyer – who fanned 15 batters in eight innings pitched for the USA Baseball College National Team last summer – struck out 12 Hoosiers through seven innings Friday.

And when Minnesota loaded the bases in the eighth, sophomore Drew Hmielewski's triple just inside the left field line cleared them and provided the Gophers a comfortable cushion for a 7-3 victory over the host Hoosiers.

Indiana (28-14 overall, 9-4 Big Ten) leads the nation in home runs and hit two more Friday, solo shots from Matt Gorski and Scotty Bradley, but IU coach Jeff Mercer noted opposing pitchers are now feeding his hitters a steady diet of breaking balls. With some success.

IU has won 11 of its past 13 games, but Hoosier hitters have sustained double-digit strikeouts in six straight games, engendering a feast-or-famine scenario at times.

"There's a progression to creating a truly elite offense," Mercer said. "We've gotten to a certain point in our progression offensively where we hit a bunch of home runs, extra base hits, and hit balls hard.

" … In baseball, at a high level, there's always a countermove. The countermove the last couple weeks has been just throw every pitch off-speed. Just throw 70 to 80 percent off-speed pitches and force them to react to that.

"First, it was, like, fastballs away. That's great. We'll hammer those, we'll bludgeon those. Then it's, like, all right, fastballs in. And we'll bludgeon those. The next move is to throw a lot of breaking balls and see if they can adjust to that. It's a constant adaptation. That's what we have to do. We have to understand that's what's happening, and then be able to adjust and move from that. That's where we are right now."

Where the Hoosiers were starting Friday night was atop the Big Ten standings by a half-game, but the result left them tied with Nebraska in second place, a half-game behind Michigan.

Hence the importance of this weekend's three-game set with the defending-champion Gophers.

IU led early.

Gorski lifted a blast into the air in right – a good idea with the way the wind was blowing Friday -- for an opposite-field homer, his 11^th of the season, in the Indiana first.

Minnesota tied it in the second through somewhat strange means.

Cole McDevitt sent a high pop just beyond short and IU looked camped under it, but either the wind or the sun prevented a catch. It was
ruled an error, with McDevitt ending up on second.

Then Jack Wassel lifted a looping liner into center that resulted in a diving effort by Gorski initially ruled a catch, but then overturned as a trap. McDevitt, who was initially doubled-up at second by Gorski's throw, instead was awarded third, from where he scored on Hmielewski's groundout.

The umpiring crew informed an inquiring Mercer that, once Gorski's defensive play was changed from catch to trap, it was mandated that McDevitt be sent to third by rule.

Indiana retook the lead in the bottom of the fourth. Bradley came up with a wind-blown leadoff double and Cole Barr had a lined single to left, putting men on first and third. Bradley then scored on Grant Richardson's groundout to first.

Minnesota (18-20 overall, 8-5 Big Ten) took the lead for good in the fifth.

Wassel lined a 2-strike pitch to right for a leadoff single and took second on Hmielewski's bunt single. Easton Bertrand then cleared the bases with a 2-RBI triple to right that looked like it hit right on the rightfield line.

Bertrand came home on Zack Raabe's RBI groundout to first, which required a diving stop by IU's Bradley.

IU starter Pauly Milto did a fine job of pitching around Eli Wilson's leadoff double in the Minnesota sixth and Zack Raabe's leadoff single in the seventh. He has allowed just three earned runs and had fanned eight Gophers by that time.

And while Milto was cresting on 90 pitches heading into the fateful eighth, he'd thrown that many pitches – and more – several times this season. Meyer, by contrast, was already at 125 pitches.

"I feel comfortable with Pauly up to, like, 110," Mercer said. "We've felt that he has finished strong. And our bullpen was a bit thin today after (Matt) Lloyd this past week, with the back tightness. (Connor) Manous threw three innings on Tuesday (in the 9-3 win over Ball State).

"And so you're trying to win the game that you're playing but the ripple effect, down the road, and not just how it affects the bullpen …"

But Wilson started the UM eighth with his second straight double. An infield single and walk ensued to load the bases.

"You get the double," Mercer recalled. "And they had several two-strike hits. I think maybe the single there was (one of those). You get the bases loaded and I don't necessarily want to bring in (reliever) Braden Scott with the bases loaded and nobody out.

"So Justin (Parker, IU's pitching coach) goes out and asks (Milto) how he feels. 'Can you do this?' And he said, 'Yeah, I got one more (out) in me.' And the guy shoots the ball down the line, and it's six inches fair or foul. And that's the way it goes."

Hmielewski's triple indeed hugged the left field line before rattling into the corner, making it 7-2. Scott then came on and stranded Hmielewski at third by striking out all three batters he faced.

Fellow IU reliever Matt Litwicki then fanned two of the three batters he faced in the Minnesota ninth.

But the only headway the Hoosiers could make against the Minnesota bullpen was Bradley's homer to right in the eighth.

Mercer felt like his hitters battled Meyer, creating threats and ballooning his pitch count, but didn't like some of the breaking balls they swung at against Gopher relievers Nick Lackney and Brett Schulze.

"It was more against the big lefty (Lackney), we were swinging against breaking balls that were never a strike," Mercer said. "(Weber has) a good one. It's hard. It's good. He varies. Different kinds of breaking balls … that guy is going to pitch for a long, long time."

There is less time than expected between Friday night's fireworks and the resumption of play Saturday.

The Saturday game (originally slated for 2 p.m.) is now set for 12:05 p.m. due to rain expected later in the day. Sunday's nationally-televised series finale is a 12 p.m. start.?