IU follows up its season-opening 2-2 performance in Arizona with a trip to the Sunshine State, as it will play three games in as many days against Florida Atlantic in Boca Raton, Florida.
Sophomore pitcher Jonathan Stiever allowed just one run on three hits over 5.2 innings pitched in his 2017 debut against the No. 7 Oregon State Beavers. The righty is the Hoosiers’ Friday starter and will be on the mound for the first matchup against Florida Atlantic.
IU Coach Chris Lemonis said he was impressed by the way Stiever pitched like a veteran against Oregon State’s talented offense.
Lemonis said Stiever was able to use his entire arsenal of pitches in an effective manner against the Beavers.
Stiever lauded sophomore catcher Ryan Fineman for playing an extremely important role for the inexperienced starting pitching rotation, which is led by three underclassmen.
“We’re pretty confident, we are young, but I don’t think talent is really lacking as a staff,” Stiever said, referring to IU’s starters. “Ryan helps a lot — probably more than anybody is able to notice from the stands. Getting different pitches and understanding where you are mechanically. You can’t really put into perspective how valuable he is back there.”
Lemonis said he hopes to get similar production out of his catcher position against Florida Atlantic as he got last weekend. In Arizona, Fineman, who the Hoosier coach believes is one of the best catchers in the country, displayed his hitting and fielding talent, and freshman Jake Matheny embraced the spotlight by hitting two home runs in his first game. Matheny went on to be named Big Ten Freshman of the Week.
Florida Atlantic’s baseball program is greatly underrated, Lemonis said. The team’s lineup stands out in combination with its good arms.
“John McCormack is a really good head coach and they’ve got it going on down there,” Lemonis said. “We purposely put together a schedule that would test us with all regional teams and some of the better teams in the country.”
Lemonis said sophomore utility player Luke Miller, who will spend more permanent time at third base this year, will see more action this weekend.
Miller only appeared once, as a pinch hitter, in the Hoosiers’ first four games of the season due to a day-to-day injury.
The third-year head coach has placed an emphasis on base stealing this season and includes a training exercise every practice.
The work paid off in the team’s opening slate of games as the Hoosiers stole five bags on six attempts, with junior outfielder Laren Eustace providing four of those swipes.
Contrarily, Fineman and Matheny have thrown out three of four opposing runners attempting to steal.
“I think it really plays well with my style of play, and I think this year we are going to try and run a lot more and be a little more aggressive the past few years,” Eustace said. “We’ve been working on it a lot in practice and have gotten a lot better in that aspect too.”
Despite traveling to temperate climates like Arizona and Florida, Lemonis said he would prefer to be playing in Bloomington, which has been uncharacteristically warm as of late.
“It’s bad scheduling, today I wish we were playing here,” Lemonis said. “We talk about it all the time and it’s part of being an Indiana athlete. We got home late Monday night and they were in class at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and we practiced a little bit yesterday. It makes it a little tougher, but also makes our guys a little bit tougher and we try to embrace that.”
