Baseball Gameday: at Louisville

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Coming of a winning weekend in Ann Arbor, Michigan, the Indiana baseball program will travel to No. 7 Louisville for a midweek road test. The Hoosiers and Cardinals will meet for the first time since the 2019 NCAA Louisville Regional.

Indiana (22-25) has won three straight midweek games and come away with three straight Big Ten series victories over the last three weekends to get squarely back into the Big Ten Tournament race. IU enters the weekend ranked No. 7 in the conference with two weekends to play.

Louisville (33-13-1) is coming off of a 5-5 tie at Wake Forest in 12 innings on Sunday due to the conference's travel curfew. The week featured two wins – one over Vanderbilt in a midweek game and one at Wake Forest. The Cardinals are 10-1 on the season in midweek games, with its lone loss coming against Lipscomb on March 22.

Gameday Info
Tuesday, May 10 (6 p.m.)
Probable Starters
IU: TBA
UL: TBA

Live Video: bit.ly/3kVq9zS
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: es.pn/396cx2j

Quick Hitters

Indiana owns a slim edge in the all-time series with Louisville entering the 54th all-time meeting, but the Cardinals won the last meeting in the 2019 NCAA Regional.
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Freshman Carter Mathison became IU's freshman home run leader with his 15th longballl of the season at Michigan. The mark is among the best freshman totals in Big Ten history.
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Mathison and fellow freshman Josh Pyne lead all Big Ten freshmen in RBIs and teammate Brock Tibbitts is close to joining the 40 RBI club to form a special duo in IU history.
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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. 3 on the single season charts.
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Freshman Grant Holderfield is tied for No. 8 nationally among rookies in pitching appearances and has not allowed an inherited runner to score on the year.
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Redshirt-junior Matt Ellis and freshman Carter Mathison are tied at No. 2 on the Big Ten home run charts, with their 15 longballs sitting No. 34 nationally.
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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 94 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

Louisville enters with a 33-13-1 overall record and is coming off a 2-1-1 week that include wins over Vanderbilt and Wake Forest on the road. UL's series at Wake Forest ended 1-1-1 due to a travel curfew in the series finale.
The Cardinals' offense ranks among the top 25 nationally in average (No. 13), slugging percentage (No. 12), walks (No. 11), runs per game (No. 6), doubles (No. 20), triples (No. 10), home runs (No. 24) and stolen bases (No. 12).
Six of the everyday position players own averages of .300 or better, led by Jack Payton at .369. His 69 hits and 18 doubles.
Cameron Masterman, Ben Metzinger and Dalton Rushing lead the team with 14 home runs. Masterman (52) and Metzinger (51) are the team leaders in RBIs.
As a pitching staff, Louisville has struck out 490 batters and owns a 5.45 ERA, while limiting the opposition to a .258 batting average.

Series Notes

Tuesday's meeting will mark the 54th all-time between Indiana and Louisville, with the Hoosiers owning a 28-25 overall edge in the series.
Indiana has won eight of the last 12 meetings, including a 3-3 mark on the road. That stretch started with a 2-0 victory for IU at the College World Series in 2013.
Of the previous 53 meetings, 23 have been decided by two-or-fewer runs.
Of the last four meetings, no team has won by more than four runs, with three being decided by two-or-fewer runs.
With the two potent offenses squaring off on Tuesday, neither team has scored double-digit runs in the series since 2012.
The last meeting came at the 2009 NCAA Louisville Regional, a 9-7 decision in favor of the Cardinals.

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Players Mentioned

Grant Holderfield

Carter Mathison

Josh Pyne

Brock Tibbitts

Indiana University Athletics