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The Indiana Daily Student

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IU starter struggles again in loss to Indiana State

Senior Luke Stephenson pitching in the second inning for IU on Wednesday evening against Indiana State. The Hoosiers fell to the Sycamores, 7-3, to end the Hoosiers' winning streak. 

It is difficult to pinpoint just a single way in which the game went awry for IU in its 7-3 loss Wednesday night to Indiana State at Bart Kaufman Field.

The game got ugly early for IU. Freshman pitcher Andrew Saalfrank struggled out of the gate for the second consecutive outing.

In Sunday’s start against Northwestern, Saalfrank was unable to make it out of the first inning. He was removed after one-third of an inning pitched and allowed four hits, three earned runs and a walk.

On Wednesday Saalfrank lacked command once again in his lone inning of work, and freshman Cameron Beauchamp 
replaced him to begin the second inning. Saalfrank kept Indiana State from getting a big inning but allowed an unearned run.

Beauchamp fared even worse and lasted only two-thirds of an inning while allowing four hits, four runs, three earned runs and a walk. IU Coach Chris Lemonis said the sloppy start early on affected the whole game.

“We’ve got to get better starting pitching,” Lemonis said. “That’s a big key for us, and that’s twice in a row that we haven’t gotten a good start. We’re not commanding the zone. We’re not commanding the rubber. We’re just pitching scared a little bit.”

IU was able to cut off Indiana State’s scoring output after the fourth inning, but the damage had been done, and IU’s deficit was too large.

Offensively, the Hoosiers struggled and were outhit for the fifth consecutive game. Indiana State knocked 11 hits, while IU mustered just six.

IU’s offensive production, or lack thereof, was highlighted by two home runs.

Senior outfielder Craig Dedelow launched a solo homer in the bottom of the first inning to even the score at one apiece.

With IU trailing 7-1 in the ninth and Dedelow on first, sophomore third baseman Luke Miller stepped up to the plate, took ball one and crushed the second pitch of the at-bat over the left field fence, over IU’s bullpen and out of the stadium altogether.

But the homer only brought the score to 7-3 in favor of Indiana State and IU couldn’t get any closer.

“You always have one of these games, and the thing is to bounce back from it,” Dedelow said. “They had a lot of good pitches, and the ballpark was kind of playing to the defensive side today, but we put a couple of good swings on some of them that went right to people.”

IU will be host to Nebraska this weekend in the Hoosiers’ first home Big Ten action of 2017. Sophomore pitcher Jonathan Stiever will be on the bump for the Hoosiers.

Stiever is 1-1 this season with a 6.46 earned run average. Lemonis said he will put Wednesday out of his mind.

“Last night didn’t affect today and today shouldn’t affect Friday,” Lemonis said. “Hopefully we get a great start by Jonathan Stiever and just play a really solid game.”

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