Hoosiers Victorious over Rutgers, 7-5

Thursday, May 16

Bloomington, Ind.

6:05 p.m.

Indiana University

34-19, 0

Rutgers

20-29, 0

Rutgers

Indiana

5/17/2019 9:36:00 AM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Perhaps the loudest cheer Thursday night at Indiana's Bart Kaufman Field came after the game was over.

IU coach Jeff Mercer was addressing the media outside the Indiana locker room following his host Hoosiers' 7-5 series-opening victory over Rutgers. And then the locker room audibly erupted.

The final out had transpired in Lincoln, Neb., where the host Cornhuskers had beaten Michigan, 5-2.

And that meant the Hoosiers were just a half-game back of the league-leading Wolverines with two games apiece remaining in Big Ten regular-season play.

Indiana renews its Rutgers set at 6:05 p.m. Friday. Michigan and Nebraska play a day-night double-header Friday to complete their series, whereas IU and Rutgers will conclude with a 12 p.m. start Saturday.

Mercer, about 10 minutes into his post-game comments, couldn't keep a straight face when he heard that locker room cheering.

"We're not paying attention!" Mercer exclaimed, regarding the Nebraska-Michigan score. "We're not paying attention! No! No!"

Then he laughed and fessed up: "What a cop-out, man."

Mercer acknowledged he'd checked the score before coming back onto the field for interviews. "Oh, sure, I'm going to check (that score) after the game," he said. "I'm human. We're all human."

But the coach knows his Hoosiers have to focus on what they can at least potentially control, and that's the next two games with Rutgers, regardless of what goes on Friday in Lincoln.

And Thursday was a good example of how nobody can control the weather.

After a scoreless first inning, a two-hour and 10-minute delay ensued with the passing of a storm front.

When play resumed, IU lightning struck first.

Sophomore shortstop Justin Walker smoked a 2-out, 2-strike pitch for a clutch 2-RBI double to the wall in left-center, giving his team a 2-0 lead in the second. Cole Barr's leadoff single (which struck second base) and Sam Crail's walk set the table for Walker.

"Big one," Mercer said of Walker's hit. "He's getting 'on time.' He's created an identity for himself where he's hitting the ball head-high to the middle of the field (and not worrying about home runs.)

"Justin has changed our season, defensively, and he's really changed our season, offensively, the last couple of weeks … and the great thing for him is that he's just scratching the surface … he can be transcendent for us."

Imperturbable IU senior starter Paul Milto didn't let the weather delay bother him. Having already worked a scoreless inning, he warmed back up and kept Rutgers limited to two hits and zero runs through four innings.

But trouble arose for Milto in the Rutgers fifth.

Peter Serruto laced a leadoff double down the right field line, was sacrificed to third and scored on Kevin Blum's looping single to right that got Rutgers on the board.

Then, after Mike Nyisztor walked, Kevin Welsh hit his first homer of the year, a lofted 3-run shot that just cleared the fence in right, giving Rutgers a 4-2 lead.

The Scarlet Knights (20-29, overall, 9-12 Big Ten) might've gotten more, too, had not IU center fielder Matt Gorski not made a spectacular sliding catch on the warning track to rob Carmen Sclafani.

"That catch he made in left center?" Mercer asked rhetorically about Gorski's grab. "Was anybody else's jaw (dropping)? I've coached Gold Glovers, and that was one of the most incredible, special plays I've ever seen.

"Just the competitiveness, the intensity, the killer instinct to go into the wall and make that catch with reckless abandon. And you only do those things if you truly care about your teammates."

And Gorski's teammates bounced right back to forge a 4-4 tie in the bottom of the inning.

Barr blasted a double up the left-center gap, scoring Matt Lloyd, who had walked, drawing IU within 4-3. Elijah Dunham, who had singled to right, made it to third on the play. Sam Crail then put the ball in play to the right side of the infield, his groundout scoring Dunham to tie the game.

Rutgers went right back ahead in the sixth.

Tyler McNamara led off with a double to right-center, was sacrificed to third and scored from there as Serruto's RBI single bounced off the third base bag.

But the Hoosiers were again resilient and took the lead for good in the bottom of the sixth, ignited by Scotty Bradley's leadoff double.

"Wasn't that huge?" Mercer said of Bradley's hit, which set the tone for a decisive three-run rally eventually capped by Lloyd's game-winning homer to center.

Bradley's double found the gap in left-center and he came home on Gorski's clutch two-out double to center that made it 5-5.

"I told Matt Gorski, after the game, it was probably the best game I've ever seen him play," Mercer said. "It truly was. And he got one hit. But it was a huge one. And he's made some nice adjustments with his swing … hammered balls all night."

And in terms of hammering, Lloyd followed Gorski's blow with an even bigger one, a two-run bomb to center.

That put Lloyd back into the individual lead for homers by Big Ten players this season (with 16), put his team back on top, and marked IU's 85^th homer of the season, tying the team single-season
record.

"I hollered at (Lloyd) in the middle of the at-bat … I said, 'Get downhill. Get on-time and get downhill,' " Mercer recalled. "And we work so much together, he's just (saying), 'OK.' And he fouls the next one straight back. Because he's getting downhill again. And I'm going, 'Oh, gosh (here it comes) …

"And then he does it.

"He's so coachable, you can coach him in the middle of an at-bat, when the bullets are flying."

Dunham, who would finish with four hits, added a double before the big sixth was over as IU sent eight men to the plate.

Grant Sloan then pitched a 1-2-3 seventh for Indiana before Connor Manous came on to face the minimum six batters in securing a six-out save.

With Sloan facing the top of the Rutgers lineup, and with neither he nor Manous allowing a base-runner, it meant the Scarlet Knights weren't able to turn their lineup over and give their bigger bats another chance before the game concluded.

"Neither one of them had their best stuff, but they executed," Mercer said of Manous and Sloan. "I was really, really proud of them. They were both terrific."
Indiana (34-19, 15-7) has been mostly terrific in eight of its last nine series. And no series looms larger than the one it is currently playing. And not just because a Big Ten regular-season title is potentially on the line.

"You're playing for the Big Ten Tournament seeding," Mercer noted. "You're playing for the NCAA Tournament … the only thing we're guaranteed is four more games (two regular-season and at least two tournament games) and you have to pour it all out.

"As frustrated as I get sometimes, I'm very proud of this team – how far we've come from being under .500 the first month, overcoming some of the injuries, the growth of the young guys … the ability to respond back. I am very proud of what we've done, regardless of what happens this weekend.

"But my goal is for our guys to be the most competitive, the hardest-playing, the most focused team in the country every time that we play. And so when you do have a game like tonight, when you are fighting for a Big Ten regular-season championship, you're not trying to turn the switch on."

No worries about that Thursday night. Lightning aside, there was plenty of electricity in the park.

Even after the game.