Baseball Central: Butler

Thursday, March 28

Indianapolis, Ind.

4:00 PM

Indiana University

Butler

3/27/2024 4:00:00 PM | Baseball

Game Notes Media Center

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – One final non-conference weekend awaits the Indiana Baseball team (13-12, 1-2 B1G) as it preps for a four-game set with in-state foe Butler. The two teams will play in Indianapolis at Bulldog Park on Thursday before the final three games move to Bloomington on Friday and Saturday.

IU is looking to close the month out strong after struggling through the opening three weeks of March. A 12-5 win over Middle Tennessee, sparked by four home runs, could be the kick start the Hoosiers need for this season.

This is the first, and only, four-game slate against the same opponent that IU will play all season. Sophomore right-hander Aydan Decker-Petty will take the ball as an opener on Thursday before turning back to a more traditional rotation to see out the final three games of the series.

Junior outfielder Nick Mitchell and freshman second baseman Jasen Oliver are riding nine and seven-game hit streaks respectively to lead the offense. Junior infielder Brock Tibbitts recorded his 50th career multi-hit game with a three-hit day against the Blue Raiders on Tuesday.

IU's pitching staff struck out 18 batters on Tuesday, tied for the most in the Jeff Mercer era. Challenged to attack the zone with its best stuff, the Hoosier rotation will once again look to do that this weekend.

The three home games will be broadcasted on BTN+ with the Thursday contest in Indianapolis available via Flo Sports.

Gameday Info
at Butler (Thursday, March 28th – 4:00 PM)
Live Video: t.ly/TnXmY
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: t.ly/BDEF0

Butler (Friday, March 29th – 5:00 PM)
Live Video: t.ly/_fMBQ
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: t.ly/DSDfX

Butler (Saturday, March 30th – 2:00 PM)
Live Video: t.ly/_fMBQ
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: t.ly/DSDfX

Butler (Saturday, March 30th – 6:00 PM)
Live Video: t.ly/_fMBQ
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: t.ly/DSDfX

Probable Starters
Indiana vs. Butler
• Thursday – Aydan Decker-Petty, RHP (IU) vs. Ben Whiteside, LHP (BU)
• Friday – Ty Bothwell, LHP (IU) vs. Tyler Banks, RHP (BU)
• Saturday (Game 1) – Connor Foley, RHP (IU) vs. Grant Brooks, RHP (BU)
• Sunday (Game 2) – TBD vs. Nate Rosser, RHP (BU)

Player and Stat Trends
Closing in on 200
• Brock Tibbitts (179) and Josh Pyne (178) are neck-in-neck as they try to become the next members of the 200-hit club at IU. They would be the first pair of teammates from the same recruiting class to reach the plateau since Kyle Schwarber and Sam Travis (2012-14). 23 players in program history, which dates back to the 1890's, have recorded 200-career hits. Only nine players have ever reached 200 hits in their first three years on campus.

200 of His Own
• Ty Bothwell is also searching for 200 … strikeouts. He is 26 away from becoming the 10th member of the 200-strikeout club at IU. He is currently third on the team with 25 punchies this season behind only Connor Foley's 45 and Brayden Risedorph's 29.

Ironman Brock
• Brock Tibbitts is on a run of 144-straight starts without missing a contest. He is searching to become the third player since 2008 to have a stretch of at least 150-consecutive starts. Jerrud Sabourin made a 220-straight starts from 2008-11 while Craig Dedelow had 175-consecutive starts (2015-17).

Racking Up Hits
• Devin Taylor (35), Tyler Cerny (35) and Brock Tibbitts (35) are all top-10 in the Big Ten in hits this season and could be chasing special numbers in Bloomington this season. Only once at IU has a pair of teammates (Alex Dickerson and Jerrud Sabourin, 2010) each had 92+ hits respectively in the same campaign. Only one player ever (Alex Smith, 1985) has had 100+ hits in a season.

Notable
Stepping out of Conference
• Under the Big Ten's current scheduling format, each team in the conference plays eight Big Ten series across a nine-weekend timeframe. IU's slotted non-conference series in that stretch comes this weekend against Butler. The two teams will play four games with one at Butler and three at IU.

• IU swept Ohio in its non-conference gap weekend in 2023 and played Evansville in 2022. After the series against Butler, IU will head back into Big Ten play for the final seven weekends of the year. During the midweek, IU handled Middle Tennessee 12-5 behind four home runs.

Mitchell Takes His Bases
• Nick Mitchell, a transfer from Western Illinois, has been phenomenal for IU since returning from a hand injury in the Baylor series. He's got 25 hits in 19 games with 24 runs in that period. He's hitting .352 (25-71) while reaching with 19 additional walks.

• The junior has seven multi-hit and seven multi-run games and matched a career high with four RBI's against Illinois (March 24). Heading into the Butler series, Mitchell is riding a team-best nine-game hitting streak.

Cerny Swinging a Big Bat
• Despite going hitless in the first three games last week, sophomore shortstop Tyler Cerny responded with a massive three-hit, two-run day in the weekend finale against Illinois. He's got hits in eight of his last 11 games.

• He's second on the team in multi-hit games (11) and is tied for the team lead in base hits (35) this season. He's scored 23 times and has 24 RBI's and nine doubles this year. He's only struck out 18 times in 107 at-bats this year.

Foley Shoves Against Illinois
• Sophomore right-hander Connor Foley turned in the best performance of his young career against Illinois (March 23) to pick up the team's first Big Ten win of the year.

• He provided seven scoreless innings with a career-high 10 strikeouts, scattering just two hits in the outing. Foley turned up the intensity after junior Josh Pyne provided him a two-run lead in the third inning.

Back-to-Back-to-Back
• Needing some insurance runs in the eighth inning against Middle Tennessee, freshman second baseman Jasen Oliver hit a two-run home run, his second of the game, to extend IU's lead. That kickstarted a run of three-straight home runs with senior outfielder Sam Murrison and junior outfielder Carter Mathison following with a pair of solo shots.

• It was the first run of three-straight home runs by IU hitters since Kyle Schwarber, Sam Travis and Scott Donley did so on April 5, 2014 at Iowa. Murrison's home run was the first official at-bat of the season and came in his 100th career appearance for the Hoosiers.

Scouting the Opponent
Butler (10-12, 0-0 Big East)
• Butler is heavily anchored by the top of its lineup. Carter Dorighi (.441), Kade Lewis (.402) and Jack Moroknek (.337) are all hitting north of .330 on the season and have appeared in all 22 contests. The trio has also combined for 14 home runs this year.

• Sophomore outfielder Joey Urban was the 2023 Big East Freshman of the Year and a Freshman All-American last season. He is still looking to get his bat going this year but provides an outstanding option in the Butler lineup. He led the Bulldogs in nearly every statistical category last season.

• Much like IU, Butler has struggled to keep runs off the board this year. The Bulldogs' staff boasts a 9.97 earned run average. Ben Whiteside, Thursday's starter, leads the team with 10 appearances this year. Brett Sherrard is 2-0 with a 2.84 earned run average over six innings this year.

• Former Hoosier and Bloomington native Ethan Vecrumba transferred to Butler and has appeared in 18 games as an outfielder this season.

Inside the Series
Indiana vs. Butler
• These two sides, separated by just an hour, have met 126 times, beginning with the first matchup in 1896. IU holds the all-time edge 96-30. With a sweep, it would have 100 wins against a team for just the fifth time in program history. IU doesn't have 100 wins against a non-conference division one team in its program history.

• IU and Butler last played at Bulldog Park in 2013. Ty Bothwell earned the win in last year's contest, a 13-2 victory for the Hoosiers.