Indiana University Athletics
‘Moving On’ – Tough-Minded Pyne Plays Beyond Freshman Status
5/4/2022 12:04:00 PM | Baseball
By Pete DiPrimio
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Question Josh Pyne's toughness at your own risk.
Consider Indiana's third baseman once nearly bit off his tongue during a Motocross race crash, was air lifted to a Mississippi hospital and came back for more -- until mom stepped in.
Pyne's racing days are over, but not the competitiveness that fueled it.
It's among the reasons why he has emerged as one of the Big Ten's most promising freshmen.
"He's talented," IU coach Jeff Mercer says. "He's physical. He has a good eye and gets into good counts. When he does that, he normally hits the ball hard. That's the basic recipe for success."
What does that have to do with Pyne's toughness?
Let's explain.
Motocross involves racing motorcycles over an off-road course full of twists, turns, high-speed jumps and other racers.
Crashes are as common as breathing.
Nearly severing your tongue is not.
Flash back a decade-plus. A 7-or-8-year-old Pyne is racing in Michigan City, Mississippi. As usual, his tongue hangs out as he powers on.
Midway through the race, he hits a stump, loses control and smashes into a tree. His tongue is almost cut off, and a life-line helicopter trip to the hospital follows.
"My tongue was attached by an eighth of an inch," he says. "I was in the hospital for a week. I was back eating within 10 days."
It wasn't long before Pyne was back racing -- until his mother, Brooke Pyne, ended it for Josh and for older son Jacob.
"My mom got scared and made us call it quits."
That opened new avenues. Pyne turned to baseball and basketball all the while keeping his tongue-out preference.
"It's weird because when I look at the photos [Indiana takes] of me playing baseball, my tongue is out."
There's nothing weird about his play.
No Big Ten freshman has more runs batted in than Pyne's 44. His 53 hits rank second among conference freshmen.
Overall, his .312 batting average ranks fourth for the Hoosiers. He has a team-co-leading 12 doubles with one triple and five home runs.
Pyne closed April in a big way to earn Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
He punished Nebraska by going 7-for-14 with seven runs batted in and five extra base hits, including a double in each of the three games. He also had a three-run home run and a triple.
In five overall games that week, he hit .381 and reached base at least twice in every game. That extended his on-base streak to 29 straight games, the third longest single season stretch by a Hoosier since at least 2005.
What's the reason for Pyne's instant-impact play? Credit a heavy dose of Florida summer ball action. He played with and competed against some of the nation's best prep players.
"It helped me quite a bit," he says. "I saw elite arms. Guys who were drafted out of high school. That helped me grow as a player.
"I had live reads off guys who have the ability to hit balls [thrown] 100-plus mph. It prepared me well."
So did Hoosier coaches once he arrived in Bloomington.
"Coming here working with the coaches helped me take that extra step."
Pyne is a local guy making the most of his Hoosier opportunity. He was a record-setting shortstop (with 50 hits his senior season) at nearby Linton-Stockton High School when he wasn't helping the basketball Miners to a Class 2A runner-up finish as well as three sectional titles.
He also was a four-time team captain, which reflects an early maturity that has paid off now as a Hoosier. One of his Linton-Stockton teammates was Kip Fougerousse (the school record holder for career batting average, walks and basketball three-pointers), who also plays for IU.
Perfect Game rated Pyne as the No. 14 overall prospect and the No. 2 shortstop in Indiana.
Pyne and Carter Mathison (whose 13 home runs are one off the IU freshman program set by Alex Dickerson in 2009) reflect the culmination of a four-year recruiting process.
"They're so tough," Mercer says. "They're Indiana kids. They come from great communities, great families, great parents."
A lot of freshmen can say that, but not many can duplicate the duo's first-year impact.
"The hardest thing is the physicality of playing every day," Mercer says. "It's exhausting. Then you deal with the ebbs and flows of the season. It drains you emotionally, physically, mentally.
"What separates them is they have the ability to move past success and failure. They just move on."
They also display a fierce work ethic.
"They are in that facility [Bart Kaufman Field's indoor batting cage] all the time, all day long," Mercer says, "and they are both good students."
He pauses, smiles.
"I'm not sure how because they're always in there -- hitting and working.
"It comes down to an attitude. A toughness to show up every day and compete to the best of their abilities. That's what's so special about them."
Pyne is far from a finished product, and he knows it.
Take defense.
He switched from shortstop to third base when he got to IU. It's not an easy transition as he can attest.
"My glove needs to get better. Third base is tough. It's my first year playing the position. It was something that was foreign to me. I had an unacceptable error [Saturday against Illinois]. I need to get better."
Improvement comes from repetition. One drill has Mercer smashing balls at him.
"It's game-like," Pyne says. "You've got 105 mph balls coming off his bat. That helps me prepare. So does playing 43 games at third."
As for why Pyne chose the Hoosiers, he says, "The campus is beautiful. The coaching staff is great. It all fits perfectly. It fits what I wanted to do in college.
"They are building something really special. I love it here. I love the way they're helping us develop and grow us as players and people."
After losing five of their first six games, and then enduring another stretch of nine losses in 11 games, the Hoosiers (20-24) aim for a big finish. They have won seven of their last nine games to make a run at qualifying for the upcoming eight-team Big Ten tourney.
They are tied for ninth in the conference standings.
It starts with this weekend's three-game series at Michigan.
"The key is we've picked up how much we've competed," Pyne says. "Our pitching has been phenomenal. Our bats follow behind it.
"When we do hit, the pitchers have more confidence knowing they're pitching behind a good offense.
"As a group, we need to string more hits together. We're young. We have a lot of freshmen, redshirt-freshmen and sophomores. We need to get better at the plate and pitching.
"There's room for improvement everywhere. Over time it will fall into place, and we'll be ready at the national level."
IUHoosiers.com
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Question Josh Pyne's toughness at your own risk.
Consider Indiana's third baseman once nearly bit off his tongue during a Motocross race crash, was air lifted to a Mississippi hospital and came back for more -- until mom stepped in.
Pyne's racing days are over, but not the competitiveness that fueled it.
It's among the reasons why he has emerged as one of the Big Ten's most promising freshmen.
"He's talented," IU coach Jeff Mercer says. "He's physical. He has a good eye and gets into good counts. When he does that, he normally hits the ball hard. That's the basic recipe for success."
What does that have to do with Pyne's toughness?
Let's explain.
Motocross involves racing motorcycles over an off-road course full of twists, turns, high-speed jumps and other racers.
Crashes are as common as breathing.
Nearly severing your tongue is not.
Flash back a decade-plus. A 7-or-8-year-old Pyne is racing in Michigan City, Mississippi. As usual, his tongue hangs out as he powers on.
Midway through the race, he hits a stump, loses control and smashes into a tree. His tongue is almost cut off, and a life-line helicopter trip to the hospital follows.
"My tongue was attached by an eighth of an inch," he says. "I was in the hospital for a week. I was back eating within 10 days."
It wasn't long before Pyne was back racing -- until his mother, Brooke Pyne, ended it for Josh and for older son Jacob.
"My mom got scared and made us call it quits."
That opened new avenues. Pyne turned to baseball and basketball all the while keeping his tongue-out preference.
"It's weird because when I look at the photos [Indiana takes] of me playing baseball, my tongue is out."
There's nothing weird about his play.
No Big Ten freshman has more runs batted in than Pyne's 44. His 53 hits rank second among conference freshmen.
Overall, his .312 batting average ranks fourth for the Hoosiers. He has a team-co-leading 12 doubles with one triple and five home runs.
Pyne closed April in a big way to earn Big Ten Freshman of the Week honors.
He punished Nebraska by going 7-for-14 with seven runs batted in and five extra base hits, including a double in each of the three games. He also had a three-run home run and a triple.
In five overall games that week, he hit .381 and reached base at least twice in every game. That extended his on-base streak to 29 straight games, the third longest single season stretch by a Hoosier since at least 2005.
What's the reason for Pyne's instant-impact play? Credit a heavy dose of Florida summer ball action. He played with and competed against some of the nation's best prep players.
"It helped me quite a bit," he says. "I saw elite arms. Guys who were drafted out of high school. That helped me grow as a player.
"I had live reads off guys who have the ability to hit balls [thrown] 100-plus mph. It prepared me well."
So did Hoosier coaches once he arrived in Bloomington.
"Coming here working with the coaches helped me take that extra step."
Pyne is a local guy making the most of his Hoosier opportunity. He was a record-setting shortstop (with 50 hits his senior season) at nearby Linton-Stockton High School when he wasn't helping the basketball Miners to a Class 2A runner-up finish as well as three sectional titles.
He also was a four-time team captain, which reflects an early maturity that has paid off now as a Hoosier. One of his Linton-Stockton teammates was Kip Fougerousse (the school record holder for career batting average, walks and basketball three-pointers), who also plays for IU.
Perfect Game rated Pyne as the No. 14 overall prospect and the No. 2 shortstop in Indiana.
Pyne and Carter Mathison (whose 13 home runs are one off the IU freshman program set by Alex Dickerson in 2009) reflect the culmination of a four-year recruiting process.
"They're so tough," Mercer says. "They're Indiana kids. They come from great communities, great families, great parents."
A lot of freshmen can say that, but not many can duplicate the duo's first-year impact.
"The hardest thing is the physicality of playing every day," Mercer says. "It's exhausting. Then you deal with the ebbs and flows of the season. It drains you emotionally, physically, mentally.
"What separates them is they have the ability to move past success and failure. They just move on."
They also display a fierce work ethic.
"They are in that facility [Bart Kaufman Field's indoor batting cage] all the time, all day long," Mercer says, "and they are both good students."
He pauses, smiles.
"I'm not sure how because they're always in there -- hitting and working.
"It comes down to an attitude. A toughness to show up every day and compete to the best of their abilities. That's what's so special about them."
Pyne is far from a finished product, and he knows it.
Take defense.
He switched from shortstop to third base when he got to IU. It's not an easy transition as he can attest.
"My glove needs to get better. Third base is tough. It's my first year playing the position. It was something that was foreign to me. I had an unacceptable error [Saturday against Illinois]. I need to get better."
Improvement comes from repetition. One drill has Mercer smashing balls at him.
"It's game-like," Pyne says. "You've got 105 mph balls coming off his bat. That helps me prepare. So does playing 43 games at third."
As for why Pyne chose the Hoosiers, he says, "The campus is beautiful. The coaching staff is great. It all fits perfectly. It fits what I wanted to do in college.
"They are building something really special. I love it here. I love the way they're helping us develop and grow us as players and people."
After losing five of their first six games, and then enduring another stretch of nine losses in 11 games, the Hoosiers (20-24) aim for a big finish. They have won seven of their last nine games to make a run at qualifying for the upcoming eight-team Big Ten tourney.
They are tied for ninth in the conference standings.
It starts with this weekend's three-game series at Michigan.
"The key is we've picked up how much we've competed," Pyne says. "Our pitching has been phenomenal. Our bats follow behind it.
"When we do hit, the pitchers have more confidence knowing they're pitching behind a good offense.
"As a group, we need to string more hits together. We're young. We have a lot of freshmen, redshirt-freshmen and sophomores. We need to get better at the plate and pitching.
"There's room for improvement everywhere. Over time it will fall into place, and we'll be ready at the national level."
Players Mentioned
Jacksonville Baseball Classic - Notre Dame Press Conference
Sunday, February 22
Jacksonville Baseball Classic - UCF Press Conference
Saturday, February 21
Jacksonville Baseball Classic - LSU Press Conference
Friday, February 20
Big Ten Tournament Press Conference - vs. Rutgers
Wednesday, May 21