Baseball Gameday: vs. Butler/at Illinois State

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Coming off its first Big Ten series victory of the season, the Indiana baseball team will hit the road for a pair of midweek contests on the road. The Hoosiers will travel to Victory Field in Indianapolis for a Tuesday (April 26) neutral site game with Butler and then head to Normal, Illinois, for a meeting with Illinois State on Wednesday (April 27).

Indiana (16-23) took two of three games from Nebraska over the weekend behind solid starting pitching from Jack Perkins and Bradley Brehmer, after splitting a pair of midweek road contests. Butler went 0-2-1 last weekend at St. John's after winning midweek contests over Northern Kentucky and Dayton. Illinois State went 2-2 last week with a midweek win over Milwaukee and one win in a series against Bradley at home.

Gameday Info
Tuesday, April 26 (6:30 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: Braydon Tucker, RHP, Sr.
BU: Cole McDaniel, LHP, Fr.

Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Wednesday, April 27 (6 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: Luke Hayden, RHP, Fr.
ISU: TBA

Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Quick Hitters

Indiana will play a pair of midweek contests away from Bart Kaufman Field this week. The Hoosiers will take on Butler at Victory Field in Indianapolis and travel to Illinois State.
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Rookie Josh Pyne is riding the longest reached base streak by an IU freshman in over a decade and is leading all Big Ten freshmen in RBIs (39).
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Freshman Carter Mathison became the fourth IU freshman to reach the 10 home run mark. The rookie joined the short list with his solo blast against Nebraska.
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Fellow freshman Brock Tibbitts can join Mathison with double-digit home runs to become the first rookie duo to hit 10-plus homers in the same season for the Cream and Crimson.
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Freshman Grant Holderfield is tied for No. 6 nationally among rookies in pitching appearances and has not allowed an inherited runner to score yet on the year.
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Redshirt-junior Matt Ellis continues to lead the Big Ten in home runs at 12 longballs on the season. The left-handed hitter has hit some mammoth home runs so far in 2022.
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Indiana has three alums on MLB rosters to start 2022 and saw a school-standard four student-athletes selected in the first 10 rounds of the Major League Baseball Draft in 2021.
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Head coach Jeff Mercer owns 88 victories as the Indiana frontman and is poised to become the eighth IU skipper to reach 100 victories in the cream and crimson.
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Scouting the Opponents
Butler

Butler enters the week with an 18-22-1 overall record and a 2-6-1 mark in the Big Ten after going 0-2-1 at St. John's over the weekend.
Travis Holt leads the team in batting average (.301), hits (49), runs scored (31) and doubles (8). He has started all 41 games at shortstop.
Freshman lefty Cole McDaniel will get the start. He is 2-2 with a 6.03 ERA and a .338 batting average against this season. He has 21 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings of work.

Illinois State

Illinois State is 15-19 entering the week and 3-4 in Missouri Valley Conference play this season. The Redbirds are the third MVC team that IU will face this season and is 3-1 in those games.
Center fielder Ryan Cermak leads the team with a.347 average, 36 runs scored, 14 home runs and stolen bases (7).
ISU limits opponents to a .248 batting average against and lead the MVC in WHIP (1.41)..

Series Notes
Butler

Indiana and Butler will meet for the 125th time on Tuesday at Victory Field. The Hoosiers own a 94-30 all-time edge in the series that dates back to 1896.
IU won the first six games in the series and have met in each decade since the 1920s.
The Hoosiers have won the only two neutral site meetings between the two programs in 1998 and 2016.

Illinois State

Wednesday's meeting with Illinois State will mark the seventh meeting all-time between the two programs and the first non-neutral site meeting in the series.
The two teams have split the previous six meetings, as Illinois State won the initial game in the series, 8-4, in 2000 and the last meeting, 8-7 in the NCAA Louisville Regional in 2019.
Only two of the six games have been decided by three-or-fewer runs.

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Players Mentioned

Bradley Brehmer

Luke Hayden

Grant Holderfield

Carter Mathison

Jack Perkins

Josh Pyne

Brock Tibbitts

Braydon Tucker