No. 24 Indiana Opens up NCAA Regional Play with Illinois State
5/30/2019 3:30:00 PM | Baseball
• For the sixth time in seven years, Indiana will be playing in the NCAA Tournament, as it was selected to the Louisville Regional. The No. 2-seeded Hoosiers will face Illinois State on Friday at 2 p.m.
• Friday will be the sixth ever meeting between IU and Illinois State, as the Hoosiers defeated the Redbirds in the last matchup on March 4, 2016, 14-1.
• Indiana leads the all-time series between the two schools, 3-2
• This will be Indiana's ninth NCAA tournament appearance (1949, 1996, 2009, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2018, 2019). Head coach Jeff Mercer joins Ernie Andres (1949) and Chris Lemonis (2015) as the three, first-year head coaches in program history to make an NCAA Regional.
• IU is 13-15 all-time in NCAA Tournament games. Dating back to 2013, the Hoosiers are 12-10 in their last 22 NCAA postseason games.
• This is Indiana's fourth ever at large big in the NCAA Tournament (1949, 1996, 2009, 2013 and 2014 were automatic bids), with all four of those at large bids coming in the last five years.
• Since the start of the 2008 season, Indiana leads the Big Ten in wins (423) and conference wins (180). The Hoosiers have made seven NCAA Regionals over that span, the most out of any current Big Ten team.
• For the seventh time in program history, Indiana was the outright 2019 Big Ten regular season champions. It was program's first regular season title since the 2014 season.
• Indiana Head Coach Jeff Mercer is in his first season with the Hoosiers and his 10th overall year in coaching collegiately. The 2019 Big Ten Coach of the Year has posted an 113-69 career record after leading Wright State to winning seasons in each of his two years with the Raiders, including a 2018 Horizon League title and NCAA Regional appearance.
• A native of Bargersville, Ind., he became the first Big Ten head coach since 1982 (John Anderson, Minnesota) to win a regular season conference title in his first season as the skipper.
• Mercer is just the second coach in IU history – in any sport, men's or women's – to win an outright Big Ten championship in his (or her) first year. Everett Dean (1924-25) did it in baseball in his first year as both baseball and basketball coach.
• Ernie Andres (1949), did win a Big Ten title in baseball in his first year as IU's head coach, but it was not outright, as IU had a three-way share of the Big Ten championship with Michigan and Iowa.
• Mercer won seven of his eight Big Ten series in his first season as IU's head coach. Dating back to his two years at Wright State, he has lost just just two league series as a head coach (at Illinois in 2019, vs. UIC in 2017).
• Along with Mercer winning the league's Coach of the Year honor, starting pitcher Andrew Saalfrank was named the Pitcher of the Year.
•In addition to his Pitcher of the Year honors, Saalfrank earned a spot on the All-Big Ten First Team along with senior utility player Matt Lloyd. Junior Scotty Bradley, sophomore Cole Barr and junior Matt Gorski each made the second team, while sophomore Elijah Dunham earned third team laurels. Freshman Grant Richardson picked up All-Big Ten Freshman Team honors, while sophomore Drew Ashley was named the Sportsmanship Award winner.
