Baseball Gameday: host Ohio State

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - On an 11-game home winning streak entering the weekend, the Indiana baseball program will open Big Ten play by hosting Ohio State at Bart Kaufman Field in a three-game series. The Hoosiers and Buckeyes have shifted the first pitch of the series opener to 4 p.m on Friday (March 24).

Indiana (14-7) has won four straight games and nine of its last 10 contests, while Ohio State (12-7) enters with a 9-2 record in the month of March. IU has swept each of its last two weekend series with four wins over Bellarmine and three against Morehead State, while Ohio State swept Cal State Bakersfield on the road two weeks ago and too both games of a weather-shortened weekend series with Dayton last weekend

Gameday Info
Friday, March 24, 2023
Live Video: bit.ly/3z6NMwk
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Saturday, March 25, 2023
Live Video: bit.ly/3Zdi3V9
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Sunday, March 26, 2023
Live Video: bit.ly/40sw2aw
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/IUStatbroadcast

Quick Hitters

Indiana and Ohio State will meet for the 287th time since the first encounter in 1902. Ohio State holds the all-time edge in the series, but Indiana has won 19 of the last 28 meetings. MORE ON PAGE 3
The Hoosiers have won the first 11 games at home in 2023, which marks the longest home winning streak in Bart Kaufman Field history and the longest to start a home season since 19 straight home wins in 1987. 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.
Sophomore Carter Mathison has played in 80 career games and has 74 career RBIs over that span to go along with 22 home runs. MORE ON PAGE 7
Sophomore Luke Sinnard struck out 13 Morehead State batters in his start last Friday to earn his third win of the season and earn national honors for his outing. MORE ON PAGE 8
Senior Hunter Jessee carried a 34-game reached base streak between the 2022 and 2023 seasons, which marked a career long for the left-handed hitter and the second longest such streak since at least 2005. 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. His first came against Kentucky in 2022.
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 18

Scouting the Opponent

Ohio State enters the weekend with a 12-7 overall record after splitting a pair of midweek games.
The Buckeyes are 9-2 since the calendar turned to March, with wins over Mississippi State and Oklahoma at the Frisco Classic and a three-game sweep of Cal State Bakersfield.
As a team, OSU is hitting .284 with 7.5 runs per game with 112 walks entering the opening weekend of Big Ten play, a total that ranks No. 2 in the conference.
At the plate, graduate student Cole Andrews paces the Buckeyes with a .391 average and is one of four everyday hitters over .300 entering the weekend.
Junior Kade Kern continues to be a do-it-all player for OSU with a .324 average, 20 runs scored, four home runs, 17 RBIs, 17 walks and seven stolen bases.
On the mound, Isaiah Coupet leads the Big Ten in ERA entering conference play at 1.08 over 25 innings of work in four starts. He also ranks No. 1 in the B1G and No. 12 nationally in WHIP (0.80).

Series Notes

There have been 286 meetings in the series since the teams first met during the 1902 season, with the 2023 Big Ten Opening Weekend series the first meeting since the 2021 conference-only season.
Ohio State leads the overall series, 167-119, with Indiana winning 19 of the last 28 meetings between the two programs.
In 18 of the last 23 meetings, IU and OSU has met in either Columbus, Ohio, or at a neutral site, including 11 straight meetings outside of Bloomington between 2015-21.
Over the last 25 meetings between the two programs, a team has reached double-digit runs in just one of those contests, an 11-3 win by Indiana in the 2013 Big Ten Tournament at Target Field in Minneapolis.
Of the 286 previous meetings, 166 have been decided by three-or-fewer runs, with 77 of those decided by one run. Ohio State is 44-33 in one-run games in the series.
Only 14 games in the all-time series were decided by 10-plus runs, the last a 13-3 IU win in 2009.

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Players Mentioned

Matthew Ellis

Hunter Jessee

Carter Mathison

Luke Sinnard

Indiana University Athletics