Baseball Central: Minnesota

Saturday, April 20

Minneapolis, Minn.

3:00 PM

Indiana University

Minnesota

4/18/2024 9:00:00 AM | Baseball

Game Notes Media Center

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – The heart of conference play has arrived for the Indiana Baseball team (20-17, 5-4 B1G) as it prepares for the fourth of eight Big Ten series this season with a trip to Minnesota. IU has won back-to-back conference series against Maryland and Penn State and will look to continue trending upwards in the Big Ten standings.

The Golden Gophers and Hoosiers haven't played at Siebert Field on Minnesota's campus since 2018. The teams played at US Bank Stadium, home of the NFL's Minnesota Vikings, in 2021 as part of the conference-only slate during the COVID-19 spring.

Jeff Mercer is 9-3 against Minnesota during his time as the head coach in Bloomington. IU took the last series played between the two teams, winning two of three games at Bart Kaufman Field in 2022.

Sixth-year senior pitcher Ty Bothwell has been outstanding in his career against the Golden Gophers. He's 2-0 (3 app., 13 IP, 19 K, 1 ER) against Minnesota and will get the ball to open the series on Friday night. All three games will be played on BTN+ this weekend in Minneapolis.

Gameday Info
at Minnesota (Friday, April 19th – 7:00 PM ET)
Live Video: t.ly/_fMBQ
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/3xDNVdj

at Minnesota (Saturday, April 20th – 3:00 PM ET)
Live Video: t.ly/_fMBQ
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/3xDNVdj

at Minnesota (Sunday, April 21st – 2:00 PM ET)
Live Video: t.ly/_fMBQ
Live Audio: bit.ly/IUAudio
Live Stats: bit.ly/3xDNVdj

Probable Starters
Indiana at Minnesota
• Friday – Ty Bothwell, LHP (IU) vs. Will Semb, RHP (MINN)
• Saturday – TBD (IU) vs. TBD(MINN)
• Sunday – TBD (IU) vs. TBD (MINN)

Player and Stat Trends
Closing in on 200
• Josh Pyne (193) is closing on 200 hits through his time in Bloomington. He just needs 12 more to join the club. 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 eight away from becoming the 10th member of the 200-strikeout club at IU. He is currently second on the team with 43 punchies, behind only Connor Foley's 65.

Racking Up Hits
• Tyler Cerny (55) is top-five in the Big Ten hits this year. The only player in program with 100+ hits in a season was Alex Smith (1985). Phillip Glasser was close with 95 in 2023.

Notable
Career Day for Joey B
• Entering Sunday's rubber match hitless on the weekend, redshirt freshman first baseman Joey Brenczewski provided the Hoosiers a career day. He had a grand slam in the second inning as part of a two-home run, seven-RBI day. His seven RBI's were the most by a freshman in a single game in program history.

• Over his past 10 games, Brenczewski is hitting .333 (12-36) with two home runs, 13 RBI's and 13 runs scored. He's taken over the primary first baseman role in the absence of the injured Brock Tibbitts.

Bullpen Steps Up
• With starters Ty Bothwell and Connor Foley not having their typical stuff this past weekend against Penn State, IU needed production from other arms to pull out the series win. Graduate students Drew Buhr and Ty Rybarczyk and sophomore Aydan Decker-Petty each went four runs while allowing fewer than two runs and striking out at least five batters.

• Sophomore Brayden Risedorph was up to 97 on the mound as he secured his first win of the season on Saturday and redshirt freshman Jacob Vogel pumped 94 past Penn State hitters in an inning of relief. IU allowed just five runs on Tuesday against Evansville.

Comeback Victory
• IU was down 8-0 after the top of the second inning on Saturday and looked down for the count in an important Big Ten series. However, the Hoosiers continued to fight. They scored five in the second, two in the seventh and three in the ninth to beat Penn State on Saturday.

• The eight-run deficit overturned in the win was the largest comeback win in 14 years since overturning another eight-run deficit in May of 2010 against Kentucky. Over the final 16 innings of the weekend, IU outscored Penn State 22-4.

Back-to-Back Series Wins
• After dropping the first conference series of the year to current Big Ten leaders Illinois, IU has rattled off consecutive weekend wins against Maryland and Penn State. With Minnesota and Rutgers on the horizon to close out April, IU will need to continue stacking wins in a crowded conference title race.

A Rare Trip to Minnesota
• During the Jeff Mercer era at Indiana, the Hoosiers haven't played a game on the campus of the Golden Gophers. They've played Minnesota in its hometown just twice with both contests coming at US Bank Stadium during the conference-only spring schedule in 2021.

• IU's last win at Siebert Field came in 2016. Evan Bell (5.2 IP, 2 R, 4 K) was the winning pitcher while Luke Miller and Alex Krupa each had three-hit days. Ryan Fineman, a freshman at the time, started behind the dish.

Scouting the Opponent
Minnesota (15-16, 3-6 B1G)
• In the final year of the John Anderson tenure, which has spanned the past 43 seasons, Minnesota is making a push towards a return to the Big Ten Tournament after a couple down years.

• The Golden Gophers are balanced offensively with five players batting above .290. Weber Neels (.321) and Josh Fitzgerald (.315) are leading the charge. Brady Counsell and Ike Mezzenga have combined for 15 home runs.

• On the mound, Connor Wietgrefe has been a standout. He's bounced between the Saturday and Sunday roles but has been dominant with a 4-2 record and a 3.40 earned run average. The 6-2 left-hander has a team-high 50.1 innings pitched and has a 46-19 strikeout to walk difference.

Inside the Series
Indiana vs. Minnesota
• Over the years, IU and Minnesota have become quite familiar. The series dates back to the 1890's with the teams combining to play 168 times.

• Minnesota has a comfortable 112-56 lead in the all-time series but IU has been dominant since Jeff Mercer became the head man in Bloomington. Since 2019, IU is 9-3 in 12 games against the Golden Gophers. However, only two of those games have been in Minnesota and neither was at Siebert Field.