NOTES: Indiana Baseball Hosts Purdue

SETTING THE SCENE
• The Indiana Hoosiers will host the Purdue Boilermakers in a three-game, Big Ten series at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington, Ind.

• IU has won seven-straight games thanks in part to a four-game sweep of the Penn State Nittany Lions last weekend at Bart Kaufman Field.

• Jeff Mercer is in his third season at the helm of the Indiana baseball program. He led the Hoosiers to a Big Ten regular season title in 2019, earning him Big Ten Coach of the Year honors.

INSIDE #IUBASE
• RHP McCade Brown was named the D1Baseball/AstroTurf Player of the Week, the Perfect Game/Rawlings Pitcher of the Week, Collegiate Baseball National Player of the Week and the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week after a school-record performance against Penn State on Mar. 13.

• The sophomore hurler matched the Indiana school record with a career-high 16 strikeouts in seven, no-hit innings. He also broke the IU record for most strikeouts in a Big Ten game, eclipsing the previous record of 13.

• Indiana's seven game winning streak in the Big Ten is the longest since the team won seven-in-a-row from Apr. 27 to May 13, 2014. The Hoosiers ran off 10-straight wins that same season from Mar. 28 to Apr. 25.

• Indiana is ranked No. 10 in the nation by Perfect Game and No. 30 in the Collegiate Baseball poll. IU is receiving votes in both the NCBWA and USA Today Coaches polls.

• The Indiana pitching staff has been electric this season, posting a team ERA of 2.01 with 89 strikeouts in 67 innings pitched. IU has allowed just 15 earned runs on 28 hits and has limited opponents to a batting average of .127.

• INF/OF Drew Ashley has reached base in 33-straight games dating back to the 2019 season.

• Since the start of the 2008 season, Indiana leads the Big Ten in wins (436) and conference wins (184). The Hoosiers have made seven NCAA Regionals over that span, the most out of any current Big Ten team.

• LHP Tommy Sommer was named the Big Ten Pitcher of the Week on Mar. 9. Sommer was outstanding for the Hoosiers this past weekend, helping the team defeat Minnesota, 5-2, on Mar. 5. The Carmel, Ind. native tossed eight shutout innings to earn the win, allowing just two hits, while matching his career-high with 10 strikeouts.

• Indiana OF Grant Richardson was named a First-Team Preseason All-American by both Perfect Game and Collegiate Baseball. He was also named Third-Team Preseason All-American by D1Baseball.

• Before the season, Indiana was tabbed to win the Big Ten in 2021 by Perfect Game. OF Grant Richardson was named the Player of the Year and to the Preseason All-Big Ten team. He was joined on the preseason All-Big Ten team by RHP Gabe Bierman and RHP Connor Manous.

• RHP Gabe Bierman, OF Grant Richardson and LHP Tommy Sommer were all named to the Big Ten Preseason Players to Watch List. IU was picked to finish second in the Big Ten behind Michigan in a preseason poll conducted of the league's coaches.

• After leading the Hoosiers to the 2019 Big Ten regular season championship, Jeff Mercer was named Big Ten Coach of the Year. Mercer 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. He was 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.

#GoIU

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Players Mentioned

Drew Ashley

Gabe Bierman

McCade Brown

Connor Manous

Grant Richardson

Tommy Sommer