Everything was going off the rails.
Or at least that’s what IU Coach Chris Lemonis said happened when IU allowed five runs in the top half of the seventh inning against Northwestern on Sunday.
Then junior relief pitcher Jake Kelzer entered the game and pitched three shutout innings while IU retook the lead to win 7-6 and sweep Northwestern at Bart Kaufman Field.
“We’re like a ‘Rocky’ movie,” Lemonis said. “We just keep getting punched and knocked down and we fight back. It’s kind of been the way we’ve played all year.”
Sunday was Kelzer’s second win of the series after picking up his second win of the year Friday when he pitched a scoreless top of the ninth before IU won in the bottom half.
This win was more challenging. Entering the game after the Wildcats hit a go-ahead grand slam, Kelzer walked a batter and allowed a single to the next. What followed was a double play and a strikeout to end the threat. Kelzer didn’t allow a baserunner after that.
“The mentality is throw strikes,” Kelzer said. “Get ahead in the count because watching throughout the two games Friday, I really could tell if you got ahead in the count you had the advantage on the hitter.”
Senior starting pitcher Evan Bell still couldn’t win his first game of the year, even though he exited after 5.1 innings with a 3-1 lead. After the bullpen blew the lead in the seventh inning, his one earned run off five hits and three strikeouts went unrecognized.
But it was the second consecutive of his starts the Hoosiers won, after only managing to win once in his first nine appearances.
“We’re winning when he’s pitching right now, which is all that matters,” Lemonis said. “But I’d like to see him get that first win.”
Offensively, the Hoosiers scored runs without getting hits. In the bottom of the seventh, when IU retook the lead for the final time, it scored both of its runs during a play that saw Northwestern’s second baseman’s throw miss the first baseman wide by about 15 feet.
They also scored two runs off RBI groundouts and another off a safety squeeze.
But the Hoosiers still won and swept the Wildcats, moving them a half game out of first place in the Big Ten behind Minnesota.
With their RPI taking a hit from simply playing a Northwestern team with two Big Ten wins all year, Lemonis said IU knows it needs to play well in the Big Ten to put itself in a position to win the Big Ten Tournament and qualify for the NCAA Tournament.
It’s a balance between playing with urgency but also playing loose, Lemonis said. The team talks about needing to win most every game they play but still focus on remembering they are in fact playing a game.
“We talk about playing for the league, and every time we come out here there’s that pressure we put on ourselves because we want to be in that situation to handle that pressure,” Lemonis said. “We know what’s in front of us. They’re not stupid.”
