Hoosiers Defeat Rutgers, Win Big Ten Title

Saturday, May 18

Bloomington, Ind.

12:05 p.m.

Indiana University

36-19, 0

Rutgers (Senior Day)

20-31, 0

Rutgers

Indiana

5/18/2019 8:40:00 PM | Baseball

Box Score Box Score (PDF)

By: Andy Graham
IUHoosiers.com

**Indiana will open with Iowa in the Big Ten Tournament on Wednesday at 6 p.m. ET**

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The thermostat climbed past 90 degrees for the first time in a long while here Saturday afternoon.

Good day to take a Gatorade shower.

Indiana baseball coach Jeff Mercer got one of those – perhaps the first of many – as his debut regular-season campaign at the Hoosier helm culminated with a 13-3 romp over Rutgers to secure a Big Ten title.

Mercer, who after a stellar stint at Wright State replaced Chris Lemonis at IU after the 2018 season, said he was grateful for a Hoosier team open-minded and mature enough to handle the transition to a very new coaching approach.

"They could've said 'Who is this 33-year-old hillbilly kid coming in here?' " Mercer, a native Hoosier reared in Bargersville, said post-game. "They didn't have to listen. They could've fought you and they didn't. They kept trying to understand and get better.

"Once they started to understand it and grasp it, they wanted more and more and more."

That somewhat reflected how Saturday's game went.

IU went hitless through three innings against Rutgers starter Tommy Genuario. But once the Hoosier hitters got going, they wanted more and more. And they got more and more.

Rutgers (20-31 overall, 9-14 Big Ten) took a 1-0 edge in the first on Mike Nyisztor's leadoff double and Kevin Welsh's RBI single, and then it looked like IU hitters kept trying to equalize with one swing during Genuario's first trip through the Hoosier lineup.

That is perhaps partly attributable to understandable anxiousness. It was all on the line Saturday for the Hoosiers. A win meant the league title. A loss meant the championship would go to Michigan.

"Got a little bit away from our approaches to start the game," IU senior Matt Lloyd acknowledged of the early at-bats. "We talked before the game about 'no heroes,' but I feel before we got that first hit, people were kind of trying to tie the ballgame for us, being down 1-0."

That first hit was Lloyd's, as he beat out a grounder up the middle for an infield single with one out in the Hoosier fourth.

Lloyd has hit a lot of balls harder throughout his illustrious Indiana career – he and sophomore teammate Cole Barr currently share the Big Ten lead in homers with 16 each – but that infield hit loomed large.

It was that chink that burst the dam. It broke the spell. Hoosier hitters seemed to relax and get locked in. A six-run frame ensued.

A walk to Elijah Dunham put men on first and second before Barr ripped a RBI double up the left-center gap to get the Hoosiers on the board.

Then Scotty Bradley worked a walk to load the bases and Ryan Fineman put the Hoosiers ahead with a ground RBI single to left. Then sophomore Justin Walker, a definite dude down the season's stretch run, lined a 2-out, 2-RBI single to center.

That prompted a pitching change, with Serafino Brito taking the hill for Rutgers. But after an errant pick-off throw to second put men on second and third, Drew Ashley drilled a 2-RBI single to center to cap the rally.

"Justin Walker comes up again with a two-out hit that really allows you to take a deep breath," Mercer said. "Then Drew Ashley comes up with another two-strike hit ... we just kept adding."

Fineman wasn't surprised.

"We're such a good offense that, when we struggle, we have one guy that gets us going and there's no looking back," Fineman said of Lloyd's catalytic single "(And usually) the other team's done at that point."

Rutgers wasn't quite done, actually.

Junior shortstop Welsh hit his third (career) home run in as many days, this one a two-run shot in the fifth, to pull the Scarlet Knights within 6-3.

"I'm not sure if he's draft eligible or not, but somebody ought to pay him like $3 million and get him out of here," Mercer said of Welsh. "He was terrific.

"They're tough. Their resiliency was impressive all weekend. You never felt comfortable."

But the Hoosiers responded right away with two runs of their own to get their coach back closer to his comfort zone.

After a Dunham single, Barr blasted his 16th (and IU's 90^th) round-tripper of the season, an opposite field shot to right making it 8-3 after five innings.

Fineman gave junior lefty starter Andrew Saalfrank a supportive hug after Saalfrank ended his solid outing with a called strikeout in the Rutgers sixth. Saalfrank fanned six and walked just one in earning the win.

Mercer then turned the pitching duties over to freshman Gabe Bierman, whose father passed away on Friday but who bore down Saturday to supply three shutout innings and close things out.

"I really want to commend Gabe Bierman," Mercer said. "Gabe lost his dad last week on Friday. What an incredible job by him. What incredible resiliency and toughness. Obviously, we've prayed really hard for Gabe.

"Gabe's transformation this year has been incredible. One of the better ones I've seen in my coaching career. I'm just really proud of him and happy for him that he could go out there and finish that ball game and represent his family the way that I know he would want to."

Meanwhile, the Hoosier offense kept scoring.

A walk Matt Lloyd and successive lined singles to center by Dunham and Barr loaded the bases in the seventh, and two runs were plated by Fineman's RBI fielder's choice and Grant Richardson's RBI single to right, making it 10-3.

IU (36-19, 17-7) then capped the scoring with three more runs in the eighth, off Dunham's RBI single and Scotty Bradley's sacrifice fly to right.

And when Bierman then ended the game with a called strike three in the ninth, it was time for a celebratory championship dogpile on the Bart Kaufman Field turf. (There was no immediate official word whether or not senior pitcher Pauly Milto's pooch, Millie Milto, participated in the dogpile, but she was certainly present at Saturday's game.)

For Fineman, it was the realization of a long-held goal.

"It was everything you could hope for," said Fineman, who had often stated he dreamed of a Big Ten title dogpile. "… It's surreal. You always talk about it as a kid. You're going to win it! You're going to dog-pile! There is still a lot of season to go, but that was awesome. That was fun."

Fineman was also the first Hoosier player to hoist the Big Ten championship trophy when IU athletic director Fred Glass handed over the hardware.

"Fred Glass held it up," Fineman recalled, "and I almost tackled him."

Glass made it clear when he hired Mercer he felt IU baseball had a coach for the long haul. Saturday seemed early affirmation of that.

How rare was the task that Mercer tackled Saturday, winning a Big Ten title in his first season coaching in the league? According to Chris Webb of the 10 Innings site, that hadn't happened since
Minnesota's John Anderson (who still coaches the Gophers) did the deed in 1982.

Mercer cited the development of younger players such as Barr and Dunham – who both went 3-for-4 Saturday, combining to score seven runs and drive in four – as key to the Hoosiers late-season surge that saw them win nine of their last 10 series.

But Mercer also paid homage to the seven players who went through Senior Day festivities before the game Saturday -- Bradley, Cade Bunnell, Wyatt Cross, Fineman, Logan Kaletha, Lloyd and Milto.

"They've been terrifically important," Mercer said of the seniors. "You know, they were involved in the (coaching-search) interview process. And when I sat down with them and asked them what they wanted, they said they wanted to win the Big Ten championship, wanted to be coached, wanted to be pushed, wanted to maximize their abilities.

"And I said, 'Fellas, that row is going to be tough to hoe. I mean, it's going to be hard. We have to change our diet, change our lifestyle, we have to work on all these things. And sometimes you ask for that and you're not sure you're really ready to receive it, once it starts coming at you.'

"But they've accepted it. They've been supportive of it. And they've been real catalysts. They've driven, behind the scenes, and helped this club to move in the right direction. They've been incredible, all of them. All of them have been terrific."

So Indiana now takes the No. 1 seed heading into next week's Big Ten Tournament, a double-elimination affair that starts Wednesday in Omaha, Neb.

Mercer said his Hoosiers won't need to change anything about their approach

"The good thing about treating every day the same is that, when you become the No. 1, it's the same," Mercer said. "You don't worry about who's creeping up on you. You don't worry about anything else. You're just trying to play your game. We're just trying to execute our game plan.

"… Whether we win the Big Ten Tournament or not, as long as we go out and do the things we're supposed to do, I'll sleep at night just fine. And our boys should, too. Just do the best you can. That's all anybody can ask of you, and that's all I ask of the boys."

Mercer didn't really ask for that Gatorade shower on this hot Saturday afternoon, but he appreciated it.

"I've had that a couple times, but each time it surprises you, especially when you're on national television," said Mercer, who was doused by the players while conveying comments over the Big Ten Network. "But they got me good.

"I'll tell you what, that was the best shower I've had in a long time."