Hoosiers crush Ohio State 13-3

The formula has been simple: good pitching combined with contagious hitting.

It’s paid off in spades, and it has the IU baseball team one win away from its first Big Ten Championship since 1996.

A 13-3 victory Friday night against No. 1-seeded Ohio State puts the Hoosiers in Saturday’s championship game, and means they would have to lose twice in the double-elimination Big Ten Tournament to lose out on the conference crown.

Unlike the Hoosiers’ first two games in this year’s tournament, which saw IU jump out to commanding leads and ride strong pitching to an easy win, it was Ohio State who struck first, with runs in the first and second.

IU pulled three back in the fourth to give starting pitcher Blake Monar the lead. But it was a seven-run, 11-batter fifth innings that killed off the Buckeyes’ hopes of cruising through to the title game in front of a partisan crowd at Huntington Park in Columbus, Ohio.

It was never close again.

Monar threw 6 2/3 innings of five-hit, three-run baseball, striking out four and walking five with a curveball that was inconsistent but devastating when it found the strike zone.

The freshman lefty got plenty of defensive help as well, and the Hoosiers held down the Big Ten’s best offense to move within one victory of a College World Series berth.

The game’s pivotal moments were oddly symmetrical.

Given three runs and the lead after four, Monar loaded the bases with no one out and tightened Hoosier stomachs. But he induced a 5-2-3 double play and a fly out to right to end the inning without allowing a run.

“The turning point in the game was that bases-loaded double play,” IU coach Tracy Smith said after the game.

In the bottom half, Ohio State starter Dean Wolosianski allowed four straight singles, scoring a run and loading the bases with no outs. A couple of singles, a hit batter and Tyler Rogers’ bases-clearing triple made sure Ohio State would not escape unscathed.

It was then that the Hoosiers made their move, blowing past Ohio State and sailing into the Big Ten title game.

Monar struggled through his first two innings before settling down through frames three and four. He got into the fifth-inning trouble, but he got out of it as well, and never really lost control of the game.

This is the second time the Hoosiers have hit double digits in three games in this tournament, and Friday’s 13-run performance brings their tournament total to 34.

Monar’s performance was equally crucial, as it meant the Hoosiers got to rest their bullpen for a third straight game. Matt Igel and Joey O’Gara combined to close out the last 2 1/3 innings, bringing the bullpen’s total workload to just 6 1/3 innings through three tournament games.

IU came out swinging – literally – trying an aggressive approach early at the plate that wore down Wolosnianski as the game wore on. Once the Ohio State starter began missing his spots, IU hitters made him pay with base hits to all fields.

“They’re going what they need to do,” Smith said of his hitters. “Everybody thinks I’m joking, but all we’re doing is making a lineup and then getting out of their way and letting them play.”

Smith said he wasn’t sure who the Hoosiers would start in Saturday’s championship game. Instead, he said he and his coaches would defer that decision until knowing which team – Minnesota or Ohio State – they would face.

But Smith added that, in the position the Hoosiers will be in Saturday night, “everybody’s available at some point.” That includes staff stars Eric Arnett and Matt Bashore.

Smith emphasized his team’s focus cannot waver Saturday, even after earning some breathing room in the fact that the Hoosiers would have to be beaten twice not to win the conference crown.

“We’ve won nothing yet, so you just keep playing and play the game the way it’s supposed to be played,” Smith said. “The mindset shouldn’t change.”