IU Seeks To Find Its Postseason Baseball Groove in Louisville
5/30/2019 2:10:00 PM | Baseball
BY PETE DIPRIMIO
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The Bart Kaufman Field stands were empty, the playing field was not. The Indiana Hoosiers battled heat and themselves, working to find their NCAA Regional baseball groove.
Matt Gorski knows all about that.
The junior center fielder was a catalyst during last season's regional near miss at Austin, Texas -- a 2-2 record, including 3-2 final game loss to host and No. 14 Texas. He insists these Hoosiers (36-21), fueled by Big Ten tourney disappointment as well as last year's tough-minded postseason performance, have the chops to shatter brackets and outside projections.
"The confidence piece is the biggest thing we can take from that," Gorski says. "We know we can compete with anybody in the country when we went down to Texas."
This weekend Texas gives way to Louisville and Jim Patterson Stadium.
On Friday, second-seeded IU (36-21) will face third-seeded Illinois State (34-24) in a Louisville Regional opener. Top-seeded Louisville (43-15), the national No. 7 seed, will open with fourth-seed Illinois-Chicago (29-21) in the double-elimination tourney, which wraps up Sunday. The winner advances to Super Regional action.
"We're facing some really good Midwest teams," Gorski says. "We'll see who comes out on top."
Gorski can lead by regional example. Last season, in a win over Texas A&M, he stole three bases and had two hits, including a double. In four regional games he had five hits and five stolen bases.
He wants more, and so do his teammates, who hope to advance to the Super Regional and then the College World Series.
Doing so means finding every edge, including video and whatever else the Internet can provide.
It starts with Illinois State, the Missouri Valley Conference regular season co-champs with Dallas Baptist. It had a RPI of 26 compared to IU's 36.
"We'll look at their stats and at video of their starting pitcher," Gorski says. "Try to get feel for their team."
The Redbirds have the MVC's top hitter in Joe Aeilts (.350, 10 home runs, 46 runs batted in) and top pitcher in lefthander Brent Headrick (9-3, 3.50 earned run average, 101 strikeouts in 90 innings).
Headrick has dominated with an ERA of 1.31 over his last seven starts.
"(Headrick) is (the kind of all-around pitcher) that we've struggled against at times," coach Jeff Mercer says. "We have to be good."
IU, the Big Ten regular season champ, has advanced to regional play six times in the last seven seasons, and nine times overall.
Last season at Texas, Gorski, Matt Lloyd, Scott Bradley, Ryan Fineman and Justin Walker combined for three home runs, six doubles, 11 runs batted in and 12 runs and a .300 average.
As far as pitching, Pauly Milto threw a shutout. Andrew Saalfrank struck 11 in 7 2/3 innings. Cal Krueger pitched four innings of scoreless relief.
That experience, Gorski says, can make a difference.
"It helps a lot. We have a lot of older guys in the lineup and we can teach the younger guys what to do, and how the experiences are."
What does that mean?
It all comes down to simplicity.
"You have to take it one pitch at a time," Gorski says. "We're going to Louisville, but we're not playing Louisville. We're playing Illinois State first. You have to take it one game at a time. One pitch at a time. Control your emotions."
For specifics let's turn to Mercer, who led Wright State to a regional appearance as the head coach, and who was an assistant coach on three other Raider regional teams.
"It helps that the players have played in a regional," he says. "It's important to reiterate what is successful in these type of tournaments -- it's the team that's best with two strikes and two outs. It's the team that can execute the best.
"These will be one-run games in the seventh inning, and you have to find a way to scrap it out."
Regional play is different from, say, conference action, Mercer adds.
"You might play 24 to 26 games in a conference schedule. You can play a little bit different style. You might get somebody's Saturday or Sunday guy, get somebody's third or fourth reliever. You play against teams that range the spectrum of the conference. If you don't win a Friday series opener, you can still win a series and a conference championship.
"These games will be different. They'll be tight. These teams are either playing their best ball of the season, or they put together a body of work to secure a bid. Everybody will be fully prepared to have success."
Preparation includes having played at 4,000-seat Jim Patterson Stadium in previous years.
"It's a lot like Bart Kaufman," Gorski says. "It can play small at times if the wind is blowing out, and it's a turf field like we play on all the time. We'll be able to play to the stadium well."
That starts with bouncing back from Big Ten tourney disappointment.
"We need to go in with the confidence that we know we're a great team," Gorski says. "We've shown it throughout the year. We need to play to our best and play every pitch the way we have all season."
The silver lining from the quick conference tourney exit is time to rest the pitching staff and address the flaws that surfaced. The Hoosiers have done that with a series of rigorous practices.
"It's awesome," Gorski says about the extra practice time. "Obviously we would have liked to have been at Omaha for longer, but we got back here and got back to work."
Players Mentioned
C
/ Baseball
OF
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
UTIL
/ Baseball
RHP
/ Baseball
LHP
/ Baseball
INF
/ BaseballBig Ten Tournament Press Conference - vs. Rutgers
Wednesday, May 21
NCAA Postgame Press Conference - Southern Miss - 2
Sunday, June 02
NCAA Postgame Press Conference - Tennessee
Sunday, June 02
NCAA Postgame Press Conference - Southern Miss
Friday, May 31