Baseball Gameday: host Northwestern

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Big Ten play has arrived, and the Indiana baseball program will open on its home turf against Northwestern in a three-game series on Bart Kaufman Field starting on Friday (April 1).

Indiana (10-13, 0-0 B1G) is coming off of a series win over Evansville last weekend, while Northwestern (9-11, 0-0 B1G) has won seven of its last eight games entering the weekend. The Hoosiers feature one of the most potent offenses in the Big Ten with the second most home runs and fourth most runs scored, and the Wildcats pitching has allowed the fifth fewest run and walk the fewest batter in the conference.

Gameday Info

Friday, April 1 (5 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: Jack Perkins, RHP, R-Jr.
NU: Sean Sullivan, LHP, Fr.

Live Video: bit.ly/3tX0Enl
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Saturday, April 2 (2 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: Bradley Brehmer, RHP, Sr.
NU: Michael Farinelli, RHP, Gr.

Live Video: bit.ly/3JVXp51
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Sunday, April 3 (1 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: TBA
NU: TBA

TV: Big Ten Network
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 seventh 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 82 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 seven 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

Northwestern enters with a 9-11 record overall and had won seven straight games before a series-ending loss to Butler last weekend.
Four the Wildcats' everyday hitters own a batting average of .300 or better, led by Jay Beshears' .379 average and Andrew Pinkston's .351 clip.
Anthony Calarco owns a team-best 24 RBIs and six home runs. Ethan O'Donnell has 17 RBIs and a team-best 18 extra base hits.
Freshman left-handed pitcher Sean Sullivan is 4-0 on the season with a 2.61 ERA over 31 innings of work in six starts. He has allowed nine runs, walked eight and struck out 43.
As a staff, the Wildcats have walked just 79 batters in 160 innings of work to go along with 151 strikeouts and a .288 batting average.

Series Notes

Indiana and Northwestern have met 191 times in baseball entering the Big Ten opening series at Bart Kaufman Field.
Indiana owns 114-74-3 edge in the all-time series and has won 25 of the last 30 meetings in the series.
The Hoosiers own the three longest unbeaten streaks in the series, including a series-best 11-game streak from 2013-21. IU also has a 10-game unbeaten streak (9-0-1; 1928-44) and a 10-game winning streak (1995-2000).
Northwestern's longest streak of success came in the form of an eight-game winning streak from 1950-58.
Three of Indiana's highest-scoring Big Ten games have come against Northwestern. Of the 15 conference games with 19-plus runs scored, IU has games of 22, 20 and 19 versus the Wildcats.
In the series, 71 of the games have been decided by one run (or tied). IU is 41-27-3 in those contests, including a 5-4 win in the series opener in 2021.

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Players Mentioned

Bradley Brehmer

Tyler Doanes

Jack Perkins

Brock Tibbitts

Indiana University Athletics