IU's weekend’s series against Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, Florida, was filled with ups, downs and question marks.
The Hoosiers and Owls combined for a rare feat, a tie, in what was supposed to be the rubber match of the series Sunday. This allowed for a perfect example of a split series, with each team collecting one win, one loss and one tie.
After falling behind 2-0 in the first inning of Sunday's game, IU trailed until the fifth inning when sophomore utility player Luke Miller hit a solo home run to even up the score at 2-2, his second home run in as many games. The score would not stay knotted up for long because Florida Atlantic added two more runs in the bottom half of the inning to retake the lead.
The game started to get wild in the eighth inning when senior outfielder Craig Dedelow hit a solo jack, his second homer of the weekend, to pull IU to within one. After Florida Atlantic recorded the second out of the inning, five Hoosiers reached base consecutively, and three of them scored to give IU a 6-4 lead.
Lemonis has placed an emphasis on aggressiveness on the base paths this season and freshman catcher Jake Matheny exemplified the importance of hustle to give IU its first lead of the game at 5-4. Senior second baseman Tony Butler delivered with the bases loaded and two outs with a single to left field that allowed senior Alex Krupa to score and an opportunity for Matheny to attempt to score from second.
Matheny seemed to be dead in the water because the throw to the plate was in plenty of time, but the freshman’s hard slide to the plate caused catcher Kevin Abraham to drop the ball, and the Hoosiers had their first lead of the ballgame.
Florida Atlantic would tack on one run in the bottom half of the eighth inning and one in the ninth to tie it up and send the game to extra innings. After two frames of free baseball, the contest was ruled a tie due to a travel curfew.
IU seemed like a different team from game to game this weekend, which contributed to its accumulation of every possible final result.
The home run swing was working for both teams in the three games, but it wasn’t more prevalent than in Friday’s matchup where the Hoosiers and Owls combined for six homers, three from each ball club.
IU put eight runs on the board that evening, but the offense didn’t translate to Saturday’s outing. This was largely due in part to Florida Atlantic pitcher Jake Miednik, who allowed just two runs on five hits in eight innings pitched. The Owls left the ballpark with a 6-2 victory and a 12-to-5 hit advantage against the Hoosiers.
The junior from Parkland, Florida, struck out seven Hoosiers and picked up the win.
Two weeks into the 2017 season, IU is 3-3-1.
Spencer Davis
