Wednesday, April 3
Bloomington, Ind.
4:05 p.m.
Indiana University
17-11
4
vs
15
Wright State
20-8
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
R
H
E
Wright State
1
0
2
0
2
0
2
6
2
15
14
0
Indiana
0
1
0
0
0
1
2
0
0
4
6
2
Hoosiers Fall to Wright State
4/3/2019 10:31:00 PM | Baseball
By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Coach Jeff Mercer's guys from last year defeated his guys from this year Wednesday evening.
If Mercer needed any further evidence that his approach to building baseball programs works, Wright State's 15-4 romp over Indiana's host Hoosiers provided some.
Mercer spent the previous five seasons at Wright State, the last two as head coach, and obviously left the program stocked with guys who know how to play.
The Raiders have already won 20 games in 28 tries this season. They had posted road wins at Ole Miss, Oklahoma State and other such places before dominating IU pretty much from the get-go.
"You have to live to the standard, work to the standard, every day, in every part of the game, or you get punched in the mouth," Mercer said afterward. "And that's what happened today. By a team that lives to that standard, in every way, every day."
Indiana's pitching was sub-standard Wednesday. Hoosier hurlers issued eight walks, two hit-batsmen and three wild pitches in addition to allowing 14 hits (including two doubles and two home runs.)
IU entered as the nation's home run leader and hit three Wednesday, but that amounted to half the Hoosier hits and wasn't nearly enough.
"There's not just one part of the game," Mercer said. "You don't just get to club 15 home runs and win, like, 20-1. It doesn't happen very often."
Homers didn't have much to do with Wright State getting, then maintaining, the lead early. Walks and manufacturing runs did.
IU freshman starter McCade Brown pitched himself into trouble with three walks in his first ever college inning, then did a nice job limiting the damage. The Raiders did manage to take a 1-0 lead on a weakly-hit groundout to short.
After a nifty 1-6-3 double-play helped thwart the IU first inning, the Hoosiers equalized in the second with a screaming line-drive solo homer to dead center off Cole Barr's bat. It was his 11th homer of the season and a no-doubter.
But Wright State took the lead for good with a two-run third.
A two-out walk to Peyton Burdick burned IU as Seth Gray followed with a double off the fence in right. Grant Richardson played the ball well and got it back in quickly, but then the relay throw was short hopped and allowed Burdick to score.
Cam Beauchamp relieved Brown after a subsequent hit-by-pitch. An Alex Alders grounder that barely eluded diving shortstop Jeremy Houston plated Gray to make it 3-1, but Beauchamp would exit after the fourth inning as the only Indiana pitcher all day not to give up an earned run.
Beauchamp got in trouble with consecutive walks in the fourth, loading the bases with one out, but dug deep to fan Wright State's No. 3 and No. 4 hitters, Burdick and Gray, and avert disaster.
IU pitchers had already posted six walks by then.
Good small-ball offense helped Wright State make it 5-1 in the fifth. After Zach Weatherford's leadoff single and a hit batsman, a pretty sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly then helped plate two runs.
Prescient defensive positioning helped IU escape a jam in the sixth, leading to a big fielder's choice against Burdick and a groundout for Gray. Then Matt Gorski's leadoff homer to left-center helped Indiana pull within 5-2 in the top of the sixth.
Black's towering two-run homer to left made it 7-2, Wright State, in the seventh but IU's Scotty Bradley responded by smoking a two-run homer to right in the bottom of the inning.
Gorski's diving, back-hand catch of a Brandon Giltrow liner in center temporarily kept the score 7-4 in the top of the eighth, but then the Raiders put the game away.
A walk, a single and a two-RBI double laced down the leftfield line by Gray made it 9-4. Then a RBI groundout made it 10-4. Hoosier pitching and defense then continued to hemorrhage runs – not helped by a blown umpiring call at first that would have ended the inning.
A total of 10 men batted and six runs crossed the plate during the frame as Wright State build a 13-4 bulge.
Raider hitters were just teeing off by that time, and the final margin was forged in the top of the ninth when, after J.D. Orr's lined leadoff single, Burdick scorched a two-run homer to center.
"That's a really good lineup," Mercer said of Wright State. " … It was good to see a lot of them. I obviously recruited all the players, and spent the last five years with those guys.
"It was good to see them before the game started, then once the game starts it's another ball game, another team to compete against. But it was good to see a lot of those guys. I love those guys."
Burdick is a .417 hitter. The Raiders, as a team, hit a healthy .298. Hoosier pitching did nothing to lower those numbers Wednesday.
"It's a competition, and the reality of the world is if you can't do a job, then you don't get to do that job anymore," Mercer said of his pitchers post-game, mincing no words.
IU (17-11) has especially struggled on the mound during midweek starts, not involving its weekend starters. Mercer was asked about the crux of that problem.
"Our inability to throw a fastball where we want to," he replied. "I mean, you look at their guys. And I know them because I recruited them, but (Wright State starter Sam) Wirsing comes out, throws a fastball where he wants to both sides of the plate. (Tristan) Haught comes in and (does the same). We didn't do that. We don't do that … we throw fastballs in the middle.
"That (Wright State) is a real team. A lot of those guys on that team will play pro ball and have a long career, so if you throw fastballs at 90 down the middle, they get hit."
Indiana can hit those, too. After a relatively slow start, the Hoosier offense got in gear about three weeks ago and hasn't abated much since.
"As you've seen, and it's not a great mystery, as we've continued to buy in to how to run a really great offense, from the beginning of the season till now, we've gotten far better," Mercer said. "And so we just have to do that in everything.
"The way we throw our fastballs for a strike. The way we take care of the ball, value the ball, on defense. The way that we do everything – the way we take signs – we have to grow in every single way."
After a Wednesday of competing against players he recruited, Mercer will have a personal context for this weekend's three-game Big Ten series, with Penn State visiting Friday (with the opener set for 6:05) through Sunday
PSU coach Rob Cooper was Mercer's mentor when the latter played at Wright State.?
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Coach Jeff Mercer's guys from last year defeated his guys from this year Wednesday evening.
If Mercer needed any further evidence that his approach to building baseball programs works, Wright State's 15-4 romp over Indiana's host Hoosiers provided some.
Mercer spent the previous five seasons at Wright State, the last two as head coach, and obviously left the program stocked with guys who know how to play.
The Raiders have already won 20 games in 28 tries this season. They had posted road wins at Ole Miss, Oklahoma State and other such places before dominating IU pretty much from the get-go.
"You have to live to the standard, work to the standard, every day, in every part of the game, or you get punched in the mouth," Mercer said afterward. "And that's what happened today. By a team that lives to that standard, in every way, every day."
Indiana's pitching was sub-standard Wednesday. Hoosier hurlers issued eight walks, two hit-batsmen and three wild pitches in addition to allowing 14 hits (including two doubles and two home runs.)
IU entered as the nation's home run leader and hit three Wednesday, but that amounted to half the Hoosier hits and wasn't nearly enough.
"There's not just one part of the game," Mercer said. "You don't just get to club 15 home runs and win, like, 20-1. It doesn't happen very often."
Homers didn't have much to do with Wright State getting, then maintaining, the lead early. Walks and manufacturing runs did.
IU freshman starter McCade Brown pitched himself into trouble with three walks in his first ever college inning, then did a nice job limiting the damage. The Raiders did manage to take a 1-0 lead on a weakly-hit groundout to short.
After a nifty 1-6-3 double-play helped thwart the IU first inning, the Hoosiers equalized in the second with a screaming line-drive solo homer to dead center off Cole Barr's bat. It was his 11th homer of the season and a no-doubter.
But Wright State took the lead for good with a two-run third.
A two-out walk to Peyton Burdick burned IU as Seth Gray followed with a double off the fence in right. Grant Richardson played the ball well and got it back in quickly, but then the relay throw was short hopped and allowed Burdick to score.
Cam Beauchamp relieved Brown after a subsequent hit-by-pitch. An Alex Alders grounder that barely eluded diving shortstop Jeremy Houston plated Gray to make it 3-1, but Beauchamp would exit after the fourth inning as the only Indiana pitcher all day not to give up an earned run.
Beauchamp got in trouble with consecutive walks in the fourth, loading the bases with one out, but dug deep to fan Wright State's No. 3 and No. 4 hitters, Burdick and Gray, and avert disaster.
IU pitchers had already posted six walks by then.
Good small-ball offense helped Wright State make it 5-1 in the fifth. After Zach Weatherford's leadoff single and a hit batsman, a pretty sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly then helped plate two runs.
Prescient defensive positioning helped IU escape a jam in the sixth, leading to a big fielder's choice against Burdick and a groundout for Gray. Then Matt Gorski's leadoff homer to left-center helped Indiana pull within 5-2 in the top of the sixth.
Black's towering two-run homer to left made it 7-2, Wright State, in the seventh but IU's Scotty Bradley responded by smoking a two-run homer to right in the bottom of the inning.
Gorski's diving, back-hand catch of a Brandon Giltrow liner in center temporarily kept the score 7-4 in the top of the eighth, but then the Raiders put the game away.
A walk, a single and a two-RBI double laced down the leftfield line by Gray made it 9-4. Then a RBI groundout made it 10-4. Hoosier pitching and defense then continued to hemorrhage runs – not helped by a blown umpiring call at first that would have ended the inning.
A total of 10 men batted and six runs crossed the plate during the frame as Wright State build a 13-4 bulge.
Raider hitters were just teeing off by that time, and the final margin was forged in the top of the ninth when, after J.D. Orr's lined leadoff single, Burdick scorched a two-run homer to center.
"That's a really good lineup," Mercer said of Wright State. " … It was good to see a lot of them. I obviously recruited all the players, and spent the last five years with those guys.
"It was good to see them before the game started, then once the game starts it's another ball game, another team to compete against. But it was good to see a lot of those guys. I love those guys."
Burdick is a .417 hitter. The Raiders, as a team, hit a healthy .298. Hoosier pitching did nothing to lower those numbers Wednesday.
"It's a competition, and the reality of the world is if you can't do a job, then you don't get to do that job anymore," Mercer said of his pitchers post-game, mincing no words.
IU (17-11) has especially struggled on the mound during midweek starts, not involving its weekend starters. Mercer was asked about the crux of that problem.
"Our inability to throw a fastball where we want to," he replied. "I mean, you look at their guys. And I know them because I recruited them, but (Wright State starter Sam) Wirsing comes out, throws a fastball where he wants to both sides of the plate. (Tristan) Haught comes in and (does the same). We didn't do that. We don't do that … we throw fastballs in the middle.
"That (Wright State) is a real team. A lot of those guys on that team will play pro ball and have a long career, so if you throw fastballs at 90 down the middle, they get hit."
Indiana can hit those, too. After a relatively slow start, the Hoosier offense got in gear about three weeks ago and hasn't abated much since.
"As you've seen, and it's not a great mystery, as we've continued to buy in to how to run a really great offense, from the beginning of the season till now, we've gotten far better," Mercer said. "And so we just have to do that in everything.
"The way we throw our fastballs for a strike. The way we take care of the ball, value the ball, on defense. The way that we do everything – the way we take signs – we have to grow in every single way."
After a Wednesday of competing against players he recruited, Mercer will have a personal context for this weekend's three-game Big Ten series, with Penn State visiting Friday (with the opener set for 6:05) through Sunday
PSU coach Rob Cooper was Mercer's mentor when the latter played at Wright State.?
Team Stats
Pitching:
W: Sam Wirsing (4-0)
L: Brown, McCade (0-1)
Batting:
2B: Seth Gray 2
HR: Peyton Burdick 1 ; Tyler Black 1
RBI: Peyton Burdick 2 ; Seth Gray 3 ; Zach Weatherford 2 ; Alex Alders 1 ; Tyler Black 3 ; Chase Slone 1
SH: Damon Dues 1 ; Chase Slone 1
SF: Tyler Black 1
Base Running:
RUNS: Quincy Hamilton 1 ; JD Orr 2 ; Peyton Burdick 3 ; Seth Gray 2 ; Zach Weatherford 2 ; Alex Alders 2 ; Damon Dues 1 ; Tyler Black 2
SB: JD Orr 1 ; Tyler Black 1
HBP: Zach Weatherford 1 ; Alex Alders 1
Batting:
HR: Gorski, Matt 1 ; Barr, Cole 1 ; Bradley, Scotty 1
RBI: Gorski, Matt 1 ; Barr, Cole 1 ; Bradley, Scotty 2
Base Running:
RUNS: Gorski, Matt 1 ; Barr, Cole 1 ; Richardson, Grant 1 ; Bradley, Scotty 1
Game Leaders
Hitting
AB
5
R
1
H
2
RBI
1
AB
3
R
0
H
1
RBI
0
AB
3
R
1
H
1
RBI
0
Players Mentioned
INF
/ BaseballRHP
/ BaseballOF
/ BaseballINF
/ BaseballOF
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