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The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU shutout by Notre Dame, 5-0 at Victory Field

Senior Brian Wilhite lines up to shake hands with Notre Dame after the Hoosiers 5-0 loss at Victory Field in Indianapolis on Tuesday.

It was a game of missed opportunities Wednesday for the Hoosiers, who failed to string together quality at-bats in key situations as Notre Dame shut out IU for the second time in three games.

Coming off a weekend series full of promise at Michigan State, the Hoosiers fell behind from the start and never recovered. The Fighting Irish, avenging their loss from last year, scored four runs off two long balls to defeat the Hoosiers 5-0 at Victory Field in Indianapolis.

“We had so many Hoosier fans come out tonight to support us in the rain and you would like to play better,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said. “That’s one of the big things — we just would like to put a better game out there for our fans to see.”

A promising start for the Hoosiers (23-16, 8-4) in the first inning quickly dissolved when junior first baseman Austin Cangelosi popped out to end the inning and stranded two Hoosiers on base. Notre Dame (24-15, 9-10), on the other hand, wasted no time to jump all over IU.

Designated hitter Ricky Sanchez scorched a one out double right center. Outfielder Zak Kutsulis followed Sanchez in the order and on the very next at-bat drove him in on a RBI single to take an early 1-0 lead.

Junior starting pitcher Luke Stephenson earned his third straight midweek start for the Hoosiers and made just one costly mistake for the remainder of his outing. Setting down five straight Irish hitters, catcher Ryan Lidge jumped on Stephenson to lead off the third by doubling to left field.

Second baseman Cavan Biggio, Notre Dame’s leadoff hitter, stepped to the dish after the double from Lidge and connected on a 1-0 fastball. Biggio placed it beyond the right field wall to increase the Irish lead to three.

“I thought the game was on a couple of pitches tonight,” Lemonis said. “We gave them a pitch right in the middle of the zone, and they took advantage of it.”

Meanwhile, Notre Dame starting pitcher Michael Hearne was carving up the IU hitters. Although they had at least one base runner throughout the first five innings, junior outfielder Craig Dedelow had three of the five Hoosier hits as seven Hoosiers were left on base.

“We had some opportunities early, and we didn’t capitalize when we should have,” Dedelow said. “We’ll get back at it tomorrow with Xavier, and I’m positive that we’ll be playing good baseball.”

The second crucial missed pitch Lemonis talked about came in the bottom of the fifth with freshman right-handed pitcher Pauly Milto on the mound. Milto hit Lidge to start the inning but then recorded two straight strikeouts to settle things down. With two outs, Kutsulis would not let Milto have his way. The Irish outfielder cranked a shot almost identical to Biggio’s home run, which put Notre Dame up five.

The second two-run home run sealed the victory for the Irish as Hearne finished out six strong innings on 106 pitches before handing the rock over to his bullpen, which allowed just one Hoosier hit from the seventh inning on.

“We did a lot of good things offensively. We ran his pitch count early in the game and had some good at-bats,” Lemonis said. “But you have to be able to hit with runners in scoring position and you have to tip your hat to their guy.”

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