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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU tries to find ways to win in first home series

Junior second baseman Tony Butler tags out a Northwestern runner during the first game on Friday at Bart Kaufman stadium. The Hoosiers won the first game 2-1.

The Hoosiers have done their fair share of traveling in the first three weeks of the 2017 season with stops in Arizona, Florida and Alabama so far. The wins, however, have not come easy.

After splitting the opening 4-game set and tying a 3-game series against Florida Atlantic with a win for each team and a tie in the finale, IU baseball suffered its first losing series last weekend against Samford.

That’s why, when asked what he was looking for in IU’s first home series this weekend against Middle Tennessee State, IU Coach Chris Lemonis chuckled and said a win.

“We scheduled hard,” Lemonis said. “We’ve played really good programs and really good teams. It’s just trying to figure our team out. We have a lot of unknowns starting this season.”

Not many expected the Hoosiers to be 4-6-1 with no series wins as they began play at Bart Kaufman Field, but thanks to inconsistent bats and a struggling bullpen, that’s the reality for IU.

Of the seven relief pitchers to pitch against Samford, junior pitcher Austin Foote was the only one not to surrender an earned run. Other than IU’s 10 runs in the first game of the series, the Hoosiers failed to string together timely hits during the weekend.

That’s the biggest problem with this team, senior second baseman Tony Butler said. IU hasn’t played a “full game” yet. The offense hasn’t picked up the pitching or the defense when it’s needed to, while the pitching and defense hasn’t picked up the bats when needed.

“We’ve got to get the whole offense and the whole defense together,” Butler said. “You don’t win ball games at this level without having a full game from both sides of the team.”

Those issues plagued IU last year too, Butler said, and it reflected on the Hoosiers’ record going into their first home series. After winning the season opener against Middle Tennessee State in 2016, the Hoosiers lost the next six games and entered play at Bart Kaufman Field with a 3-7 record.

IU won that home series against Western Carolina, and will look to do the same against Middle Tennessee this weekend beginning Friday at 3:05 p.m.

“I think you play better when you’re at home, so we’re hoping that we’re going to have a chance to win the series and play some good baseball,” Lemonis said. “We’re really close right now, been a little frustrated I guess.”

While the Hoosiers have been frustrated, Lemonis, Butler and sophomore catcher Ryan Fineman all agreed the tough initial road schedule will help them later on in the season with trust and consistency for pitchers and batters alike.

Fineman said the bats haven’t been struggling to hit the ball at all; rather, it’s just scoring those baserunners. The catcher said he thought game two against Samford was IU’s best batting day even though the Hoosiers only scored five runs.

“The averages don’t show but we’ve been hitting the balls hard,” Fineman said. “Saturday I think we hit the ball the best — seven, eight lineouts. You can’t do much more than that. If the baseball doesn’t fall then you’ve got to pick it up somewhere else.”

Lemonis said he talked to the team after Saturday’s loss and challenged them again to play winning baseball after a “tough loss,” something he did after the Florida Atlantic series as well.

The Hoosiers will try to find their winning ways against a strong 7-6 Middle Tennessee State team that’s defeated Northwestern, Memphis, Kennesaw State and Bowling Green.

“We’re just a little short in some areas that are holding us back,” Lemonis said. “We play with everybody, but winning is a lot different than playing with everybody. We’ve got to be able to take the game.”

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