Baseball Gameday: host Butler

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - In a series that dates back to 1896, the Indiana baseball program will host Butler on Tuesday evening at Bart Kaufman Field. First pitch is scheduled for 4 p.m. between the Hoosiers and Bulldogs.

With the Indiana men's basketball program hosting Iowa on Tuesday, those wishing to attend the baseball game can park for free in the RV/Auxiliary Lot located at the corner of SR 45/46 and Fee Lane.

Gameday Info
Tuesday, February 28, 2023
IU: Ty Bothwell, LHP, R-Sr.
BU: Grant Brooks, RHP, Fr.

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

Quick Hitters

Indiana and Butler will meet for the second straight season after IU grabbed a 9-1 victory at Victory Field last season behind a 15 strikeout game from the pitching staff. MORE ON PAGE 3
Indiana placed four student-athletes on the All-Big Ten Freshman Team in 2022 and redshirt-junior Matthew Ellis was named third-team All-B1G by the conference coaches.
Freshman Carter Mathison and redshirt-senior Matthew Ellis each hit home runs on opening weekend to bring their career totals to 20 and 19, respectively, for the Cream and Crimson.
Mathison has played in 66 career games and has 64 career RBIs over that span to go along with his 20 home runs.
MORE ON PAGE 7
Senior Hunter Jessee carries a 23-game reached base streak into the week, which dates back to the 2022 season, and marks a career long for the left-handed hitter. MORE ON PAGE 7
Jessee posted his second career multi home run game versus Miami (Ohio) with a first inning home run to right field and a seventh inning shot to the opposite field.
Indiana's pitching staff posted a program record 600 strikeouts in 2022. That mark ranks No. 2 in Big Ten history, behind Iowa's 602 punchouts in 2022, as well. MORE ON PAGE 8
Head coach Jeff Mercer became the eighth IU skipper to reach 100 victories in the cream and crimson with a series finale win at Auburn on February 19, 2023. FULL BIO ON PAGE 17

Scouting the Opponent

Butler enters the week with a 2-5 record, winning two of four games over Fairleigh Dickinson in Lexington, South Carolina, to open the season, before dropping all three games at Campbell last weekend.
Freshman Joey Urban leads the team with a .419 batting average, 13 hits - eight for extra bases - and 10 runs scored.
Graduate student Jake DeFries paces the squad with three stolen bases and eight runs scored. He is one of three Bulldogs with a home run in 2023, as well.
The Bulldogs are averaging 11.0 strikeouts per game and are batting .249 as a team. On the base paths, BU is 10-of-12 on stolen base attempts through seven games.
The pitching staff has struck out 63 and walked 44 over the first 61 1/3 innings and have allowed 10.1 hits per game in seven contests.
Relievers Lukas Galdoni and Jon Vore each lead the team with three appearances in the early season. Each have three strikeouts in 4 and 5 2/3 innings, respectively.

Series Notes

Indiana and Butler will meet for the 126th time on Tuesday, with the Hoosiers owning a 95-30 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 three neutral site meetings between the two programs, which were played in 1998 (Evansville), 2016 (Port Charlotte, Fla.) and 2022 (Indianapolis).
Since 1970, the two teams have played in Bloomington 37 times and Indiana owns a 30-7 mark in those games. Of those games, 13 have been decided by two-or-fewer runs.
Tuesday will mark the second game played between Butler and Indiana played in February, with the earliest meeting coming on Feb. 27, 2019, a 9-3 victory for IU at Bart Kaufman Field.
The latest meeting in a season came on May 30, 1938, a 5-4 Butler victory in Indianapolis.

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Players Mentioned

Ty Bothwell

Matthew Ellis

Hunter Jessee

Carter Mathison

Indiana University Athletics