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Tuesday, March 19
The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

Sweet Home Indiana

IU opens home schedule with convincing victory

Baseball

A day removed from a loss at Morehead State that totaled 35 runs by both clubs, the IU baseball team didn’t lose a thing at the plate in its first home game of the 2010 season.

Six home runs, a school record-tying, five-hit day for junior first baseman Jerrud Sabourin and a clinching five-run seventh inning produced a 17-8 winning effort for the Hoosiers (10-10) at Sembower Field.

The offensive assault on the Musketeers (4-16) came a day after the Hoosiers dropped a 20-15 slugfest and marked the second consecutive day the Hoosiers hit six home runs in a game.

Pushing runs across the plate hasn’t been a problem for most of the season, though it has taken on more of an importance with a shorthanded pitching staff.

“We have a pretty decent lineup, top to bottom, so runs aren’t going to be our problem,” IU coach Tracy Smith said.

Smith cautioned, though, that his ball club shouldn’t expect to win with a primarily offensive-minded approach.

“You don’t want to rely on outscoring your opponent day-in and day-out, because that just doesn’t happen in baseball,” he said.

The Hoosiers got off to a good start in the home opener with a diving play by freshman shortstop Michael Basil to take away a Xavier hit. The Hoosiers kept rolling when freshman third baseman and leadoff batter Micah Johnson homered on the second pitch he saw. The deep shot was Johnson’s seventh of the season, and it was quickly followed by a one-out solo home run by a somewhat under-the-weather Sabourin.

“I’ve not really felt that great for the last few days health-wise,” Sabourin said. “But at the plate, I felt pretty good today, felt pretty relaxed and everything looked good to me.”

Sabourin’s performance included two home runs, a double and two singles. His hot bat of late has pushed his season batting average to .452.

Sophomore pitcher Ethan Wilson started for the Hoosiers but ran into trouble in the third inning after giving up two runs. He was replaced by freshman Jonny Hoffman, who gave the Hoosiers 4.2 innings of work, giving up six runs on four hits.

The IU offense, though, kept plugging away.

A four-run fourth inning helped the Hoosiers jump to a 7-2 lead, primarily due to a three-run home run by sophomore outfielder Alex Dickerson. Dickerson is leading the team with nine home runs on the year.

But Xavier wasn’t completely finished. After scoring two runs in the top of the sixth, third baseman Patrick Peligraf hit a two-out double past Dickerson to drive two runs across the plate in the top half of the seventh inning. The Musketeers then trailed 9-6, but wouldn’t come any closer.

The Hoosiers lit up the scoreboard again in the bottom half of the inning after junior center fielder Brian Lambert singled to left field before Sabourin stepped to the plate again.

And once again, he would deliver.

After a wild pitch from Xavier’s Josh Murphy advanced Lambert to second, Sabourin dropped in a double to score Lambert.

Sabourin’s RBI led to the biggest inning of the day, as sophomore designated hitter Blake Monar and senior right fielder Michael Earley each had run-scoring hits.

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