Hoosiers advance to NCAA Tournament for first time since 1996 with 13-2 win
COLUMBUS, Ohio — Indiana’s bats had become almost a given at the Big Ten Baseball Tournament this weekend.
But getting the pitching performance it did out of Matt Igel Saturday had to be a treat.
Igel limited Minnesota to two runs over five innings in his first start of the season, and Indiana pounded out 18 more hits to rout the Gophers, 13-2, to win the tournament and advance to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1996.
Igel followed outstanding efforts in the first three games by Indiana starters Eric Arnett, Matt Bashore and Blake Monar by allowing just four hits and getting defensive help with three double plays. Closer Chris Squires took over to start the sixth with a 7-2 lead and pitched four innings of two-hit ball.
“We waited for a long time for two guys to step up, and we got that out of them this weekend,” Indiana coach Tracy Smith said. “And the neat thing about it is (Igel and Monar) are both freshman. We wouldn’t be where we are right now if those guys didn’t do a good job shutting down good baseball teams.”
Indiana (32-25) racked up 67 hits and outscored its opponents 47-9 in the four-game run to the title. Along the way, the third-seeded Hoosiers knocked off No. 6 seed Purdue, top-seeded Ohio State and No. 2 seed Minnesota — twice.
“It is a testament to our players that we can get here and play so well,” said lead-off hitter Chris Hervey, who drove in four runs. “We kept our eye on the goal and we worked hard to get there.”
Hervey singled in the second run in the top of the second as the Hoosiers jumped out to a 2-0 lead on Gopher starter Austin Lubinsky (3-1).
Jerrud Sabourin led off the third with his sixth homer of the season to make it 3-0.
Minnesota (38-17) got one back in the bottom half on Derek McCallum’s solo shot to center, but Indiana took control with four more runs in the fourth.
With one out, Brian Lambert and Tyler Rogers hit back-to-back singles to put runners on first and second. Jake Dunning laid down a bunt that Gopher third baseman Kyle Geason fielded but threw wildly to first, allowing Lambert and Rogers to score and Dunning to reach third. Hervey followed with an RBI single to chase Lubinsky, and Josh Phegley later knocked Hervey in with a sacrifice fly to make it 7-1.
Indiana blew the game open with four more in the seventh. Dunning was hit with the bases loaded, Lambert scored on a wild pitch and Hervey capped the inning with a two-run single that made it 11-2.
Kipp Schutz added a two-run single in the eighth as every Hoosier got a hit, including three each by Hervey, Dunning and Alex Dickerson.
Minnesota was playing its second game of the day after knocking off the Buckeyes, 9-6, to make it out of the losers’ bracket in the double elimination tournament.
“We basically played four nine-inning games in the last 24 hours,” Minnesota coach John Anderson said. “That’s not an easy task. For what our kids accomplished, I’m impressed.”
Now the Hoosiers await the draw for the NCAA Tournament, where anything can happen.
“It is awesome to go to a (regional), but I told the kids to don’t think for a second that we can’t get to the ultimate thing (the College World Series),” Smith said. “The kids we throw out 1-2 (Arnett and Bashore) are as good as anybody in the country, and the way we are playing as a team right now, and the way we are swinging the bats, anything is certainly possible.”
Bloomington Herald Times
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Your #3 held a very good OSU offense to only 3 earned runs total in 2 games this year so he's not that bad either Coach.
ReplyDeleteGreat point. There isn't video up yet, I do have the audio available but not linked. But after last night's game I did ask Tracy about Monar and Igel, and he thanked me for asking the question, he said he would have been remorsed had he not spoke on the two. Said they were struggling all year to find a consistent #3 and #4 and to have Monar and Igel step up was huge.
ReplyDeleteI know you just write it, but that's kinda crappy on Smith's part though. Although Monar has walked too many as of late, he began the conference season as the Friday starter because he was throwing better than Bashore and to keep the L-R-L theme. Its crazy to me that a coach would not acknowledge that.
ReplyDeleteI probably should have actually read this article instead of just pasting but in the article where Smith says
ReplyDelete“We waited for a long time for two guys to step up, and we got that out of them this weekend,” Indiana coach Tracy Smith said. “And the neat thing about it is (Igel and Monar) are both freshman. We wouldn’t be where we are right now if those guys didn’t do a good job shutting down good baseball teams.”
That was the second half of his comments on my question.
I'll try to get the audio up from the entire presser with Phegley's, Hervey's, and Smith's entire statements up.