IU travels north to face Indiana State

In what will be the 95th meeting of a series that dates back to 1898, the IU baseball team will travel to Bob Warn Field in Terre Haute to play the Indiana State Sycamores.

“We want to be known as the best team in Indiana,” junior first baseman Michael Basil said. “Success in this series helps with our recruiting and can help our program, so we definitely take pride in this game.”

One day after losing to No. 14 Louisville 13-4, it will be crucial for the Hoosiers to have a good start from the team’s usual closer, sophomore Ryan Halstead (0-1), after Tuesday’s starter, Brian Korte (0-2), could not record a single out — forcing IU’s bullpen to be stretched to finish the rest of the game.

With Wednesday’s game against Indiana State being the second game in a 12-game-in-10-day stretch for the Hoosiers, IU Coach Tracy Smith emphasized the importance of strong starting pitching — something the Cream and Crimson have lacked so far this season.

Unlike IU, Indiana State is hot coming into Wednesday’s game. The Sycamores have won seven of their past eight games and have scored at least 10 runs in six of those eight games. In the first 10 games of the season, ISU has been led by junior Robby Ort, who batted .500 with three home runs and 15 RBIs during that stretch.

Against Louisville, freshman second baseman Chad Clark, who has been replacing pre-season All-American Micah Johnson, who has an elbow surgery, at second, went 2-for-5 with a run and a stolen base. Although Clark had success at the plate, he struggled in the field with three errors.

Smith said the team will need to become stronger defensively up-the-middle — sophomore short stop Dustin DeMuth and Clark combined for five errors against Louisville — but he does not want to take away from Clark’s aggressiveness.

“I don’t have a fault with Clark because everything that he is doing, he is doing aggressively,” Smith said. “You can’t beat anybody making five errors up the middle, but with a young guy like Clark, his aggressiveness is something you don’t want to take away.”

Entering this week, Clark is one of the many freshmen who has made an early impact for IU. Before the game against Louisville and through nine games, exactly half of Indiana’s starters, including pitchers, have been freshmen (45 of 90).

The two hottest freshmen for the Hoosiers have been catcher Kyle Schwarber and right fielder Chris Sujka.

One week after Sujka was named the Big Ten Co-Freshman of the Week after going 6-for-12 with a home run and four RBIs in three games against Tulane, Schwarber was named Indiana’s second Big Ten Freshman of the Week for his performance this past weekend against East Tennessee State University.

Schwarber went 6-for-11 while belting a triple and two home runs, including a grand slam to cap off a six-run fifth inning of IU’s 10-5 game two win against ETSU. After a 0-for-4 performance against Louisville, Smith said Schwarber still needs to work on a consistent mental approach for each at-bat.

“All you do as a hitter is try to be consistent in your approach and routine,” Smith said. “He’s got a very good baseball swing, but he still needs to work on his mentally not giving away at bats.”

As for Sujka, the freshman from Oak Forest, Ill., went 1-for-3 with an RBI against Louisville to add to his team lead of 12 RBIs. Sujka is also second behind Schwarber with two homers and 19 total bases, while starting every game so far.

While the freshmen’s bats have been steady this year, IU hopes DeMuth’s bat just woke up against Louisville.

In the first nine games of the year, DeMuth was batting a dismal 2-for-39 with a .119 on-base percentage, but after going 2-for-3 with a walk and a run against Louisville.

Smith said DeMuth’s slow start has been a factor to the team’s slow start but will, he hopes, be remedied with confidence.

“Hopefully, (Tuesday) made him relax a little bit and stop pressing,” Smith said. “When you are talking about a guy who had the second most hits in the Big Ten last season to be struggling as much as he was this year, a positive for me is the fact that DeMuth may really heat up soon.”

After a pair of victories over the Sycamores this past season, Indiana leads the all-time series 54-39-1.