Baseball Gameday: host Illinois State

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – In its final midweek contest of the season, the Indiana Baseball program will host Illinois State for the first time in program history on Tuesday (May 17) at Bart Kaufman Field.

Indiana (24-27) is coming off a series win over Minnesota, while Illinois State (19-27) dropped two of three games at Missouri State over the weekend. The Hoosiers won the first two games of the series, including a one-hit shutout of the Gophers in the middle game of the series. The Redbirds dropped the first two games before winning the finale.

Gameday Info

Tuesday, May 17, 2022
IU: TBA
ISU: TBA

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

Quick Hitters

Indiana and Illinois State will meet for the eighth time in program history and for the first time ever in Bloomington. IU holds a slip 4-3 edge in the all-time series.
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IU has met four of the six Missouri Valley Conference schools this season and owns a 6-3 mark in those games. The MVC is the No. 7 ranked RPI conference entering the week.
Freshman Carter Mathison became IU's freshman home run leader with his 15th longballl of the season at Michigan. The mark is the second highest total in B1G history for a freshman.
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Mathison and fellow freshman Josh Pyne are the top two Big Ten freshmen in RBIs and teammate Brock Tibbitts joined them in the 40 RBI club against Minnesota to form the top freshman trio in program history.
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Redshirt-junior Matt Ellis and freshman Carter Mathison are tied at No. 3 on the Big Ten home run charts, with their 16 longballs sitting No. 42 nationally.
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Indiana's pitching staff is on pace to become one of the most productive strikeout units in program history. The 2022 staff already ranks No. 2 on the single season charts.
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Freshman Grant Holderfield is tied for No. 9 nationally among rookies in pitching appearances and has not allowed an inherited runner to score on the year.
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Indiana had 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 96 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

Scouting the Opponents

Illinois State enters with a 19-27 overall record and 6-12 mark in Missouri Valley Conference play after dropping two of three games over the weekend at Missouri State.
Centerfielder Ryan Cermak leads the MVC and is No. 36 nationally with a .702 slugging percentage, which is bolstered by his team-best 18 home runs. He also leads the team in hits (56), runs scored (43), walks (29) and on-base percentage (.439).
Jake McCaw paces the program with 40 RBIs and his 55 hits, 37 runs scored, and 12 home runs are No. 2 on the team.
As a pitching staff, the Redbirds own a 4.87 ERA and a .255 opponents' batting average. In 406 innings, the staff has walked just 184 batters to 360 strikeouts.

Series Notes

Tuesday's meeting with Illinois State will mark the eighth meeting all-time between the two programs, with Indiana owning a 4-3 edge in the all-time series.
The 2022 series featured games on the two respective institutions campuses in the series' history.
Illinois State won the initial game in the series, 8-4, in 2000 and Indian won the second meeting, 17-7, in 2005.
The two programs have also met in the NCAA postseason, with Illinois State winning an 8-7 decision at the 2019 NCAA Louisville Regional.
Only three of the seven games have been decided by three-or-fewer runs, including the first meeting of 2022 at Illinois State.

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Players Mentioned

Grant Holderfield

Carter Mathison

Josh Pyne

Brock Tibbitts