Baseball Gameday: host Evansville

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – After a wet week in the region, the Indiana baseball team will welcome Evansville for a three-game series at Bart Kaufman Field beginning at 5 p.m. on Friday (March 25).

Indiana (8-12) enters the weekend looking to bounce back after a series loss last weekend to Xavier, while Evansville (8-12) won its midweek game at Western Kentucky after dropping two games at Northwestern last weekend.

The two teams met last during the 2020 season, with Evansville winning a one-run game on its home field. The last season series for the programs came in a four-game series in 2019, which the Hoosiers swept – winning the final three games at home after a series-opening win on the road.

Gameday Info

Friday, March 25 (5 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: Jack Perkins, RHP, R-Jr.
EU: Shane Harris, RHP, R-So.

Live Video: bit.ly/3L9vYVu
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Saturday, March 26 (2 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: Bradley Brehmer, RHP, Sr.
EU: Shane Gray, RHP, Sr.

Live Video: bit.ly/3LeosZG
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Sunday, March 27 (1 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: TBA
EU: Nick Smith, RHP, So.

Live Video: bit.ly/3DeU91U
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Quick Hitters

A handful of Hoosiers find themselves among the national leaders and are leading the Big Ten in various categories entering the sixth weekend of the season.
MORE ON PAGE 6 & 7
Redshirt-junior Matt Ellis has been seeing the ball well and leads the Big Ten lead in home runs. The left-handed hitter has also hit some mammoth home runs so far in 2022.
MORE ON PAGE 3 & 8
Redshirt-junior Jack Perkins is off to a solid start to the 2022 season on the mound in his first season in the cream and crimson.
MORE ON PAGE 7
Head coach Jeff Mercer owns 79 victories as the Indiana frontman and is poised to become the eighth IU skipper to reach 100 victories in the cream and crimson.
FULL BIO ON PAGE 4
Freshman Brock Tibbitts took a pair of pitches out of the park in the IU's season opener versus Miami (Ohio), but you don't have to look far in the record books for the last rookie to hit multiple home runs in a game.
MORE ON PAGE 3 & 7
Graduate student Tyler Doanes has been a table setter for IU and ranks among the national leaders in walks through four weeks of the season.
MORE ON PAGE 7
Indiana matched a school standard with four student-athletes selected in the first 10 rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft in 2021.
MORE ON PAGE 7

Scouting the Opponent

Evansville enters with an 8-12 overall mark after a midweek win at Western Kentucky, 9-8, on Tuesday.
As a team, EU ranks No. 25 nationally in double plays turned (17) and is also No. 35 nationally in doubles (44).
Mark Shallenberger leads the team with a .384 average and a .471 on-base percentage. He is tied for the team lead in hits (28) with Simon Scherry.
Tanner Craig leads the team in home runs (7), runs scored (17) and RBIs (22). He is hitting .338 and owns a slugging percentage of .688 entering the weekend.
Nick Smith and Shane Gray have each made five starts on the season, with Gray posting a 3-2 record.

Series Notes

Friday's series opener will mark the 50th meeting all time between Indiana and Evansville, with IU holding a 31-18 edge on the ledger.
The last meeting came during the 2020 season in Evansville, a 5-4 win for the Purple Aces.
In Bloomington, Indiana has won 18 of the 25 games played, with the last series coming at Bart Kaufman Field on April 13-14, 2019, as part of a three-game sweep for IU.
The two teams have met one time on a neutral site, with IU winning, 15-10, on March 23, 1992.
Indiana won 16 of the first 19 meetings in the series, before Evansville 11 of the next 15 contests. IU has claimed 11 of the last 14 meetings entering the weekend.
Over the last 15 meetings, nine of those have been decided by two-or-fewer runs.

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Players Mentioned

Bradley Brehmer

Tyler Doanes

Jack Perkins

Brock Tibbitts