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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU not saving anything for later to begin NCAA Regional

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IU is not taking anything for granted.

That much is evident by looking at the Hoosiers scheduled starting pitcher for their first game of the NCAA postseason against Radford at Vanderbilt on Friday.

IU will start junior Kyle Hart, the recent ace on the Hoosier pitching staff.

“I’ve always been a believer of getting your best guys out there first and win game one in a tournament,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said. “It’s just a lot easier to win it when you’re in the winner’s bracket then having to fight through the winner’s bracket. I’ve never been a fan of holding a guy back.”

Hart is 4-0 this season with a 1.48 ERA, the lowest on the team. Hart’s win total is also tied for the team lead, despite his not becoming a regular member of the starting rotation until the series at Maryland at the beginning of May.

That series was also the start of a current stretch in which IU has won 11 of 14 games. Hart was the winning pitcher in three of IU’s wins during that period.

Friday will also be Hart’s first start in the postseason. In 2013, Hart was always the man in reserve. Had the Hoosiers needed to play an extra game in the regionals, Hart would have started. But the Hoosiers won their regional without losing a game, so Hart wasn’t needed. Then IU won its super regional match-up against Florida State in two games before being knocked out of the College World Series in three games.

“I’m geared up for it,” Hart said. “I’m not going to over-hype it, it’s just another game of baseball where you have to get outs or they take you off the mound. But I’ve got a lot stored up from that year and then last year sitting and watching Stanford run around our park.”

Aside from Hart, the Hoosiers don’t really have a true starting pitcher. Lemonis has said as much throughout IU’s recent string of success. He has said his pitching staff consists of many pitchers without roles. While lacking a true starting pitching rotation can seem detrimental, the Hoosiers believe this is an advantage, especially in a regional setting.

“It’s honestly kind of a good thing,” junior pitcher Scott Effross said. “I’ve started games this year and now I’m relieving and closing, but I know if they tell me to start I’ll just say give me the ball. There’s probably seven or eight other guys on the staff right now who can say the same thing.”

The reason for this is because a typical three-man rotation might not be enough to get a team through a regional. Potentially, a team could have to play five games in four days to advance.

This means having multiple pitchers who can start, multiple pitchers who can pitch extended innings out of the bullpen and multiple pitchers who can close a game helps deal with the potential workload heaped upon a team.

“If we get in a Monday elimination game we know we’ll have guys who can start and go as long as possible,” Effross said. “We know our pen’s been solid the past couple weekends, so it’s really helpful to know we have a lot of pitchers who can fill a lot of different roles.”

Hart said he believes not only that IU’s pitching depth will be the key to Hoosier success in Nashville, Tenn., but that pitching in general will be paramount to the Hoosiers’ chances of advancing to a super ?regional.

“You have to pitch to win the next few weeks,” Hart said. “Whoever wins this regional, whoever wins the College World Series will pitch the ball really well. That has to be our mantra from pitch one to get our arms going.”

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