IU began its Big Ten season with a couple baseball rarities — a 3-home run game for one batter and a no-decision after a pitcher surrendered eight runs.
Capping off the first game of a double-header against Northwestern in Evanston, Illinois, the Hoosiers defeated the Wildcats 13-9 by rallying from five runs down early in the game.
Sophomore ace pitcher Jonathan Stiever pitched one inning against Cincinnati after not pitching for nearly a month due to an unidentifiable arm injury. IU Coach Chris Lemonis said the short mid-week outing was meant to get the sophomore some work but that he would start against Northwestern this weekend.
Stiever did start, and in 2.2 innings, he gave up nine hits for eight runs. The Hoosiers were down 8-3 by the end of the third inning.
Then sophomore infielder and closing pitcher Matt Lloyd started hitting home runs.
Lloyd — who Lemonis said has become IU’s most reliable closing pitcher — hit a solo shot to pull within 8-4 and then hit a 3-run shot in the sixth inning to tie the game at 8-8. After Northwestern took a short-lived one-run lead, Lloyd went back-to-back with junior outfielder Logan Sowers to take a 10-9 lead in the eighth inning.
Lloyd finished his day at the plate 4-for-5 with three runs scored, five RBI and the first 3-home run game since former Hoosier Josh Phegley did the same in 2009. The sophomore also closed the ninth inning on the mound.
As a team, IU hit five home runs — three from Lloyd, one from Sowers and a 3-run home run from freshman Matt Gorski early in the game.
In relief, freshman pitcher Cal Krueger held Northwestern down to just one hit and no earned runs in 2.1 innings. Junior pitcher BJ Sabol then pitched three innings, allowing three hits and one run and striking out four of the 12 batters he faced. Sabol would eventually be credited with the win.
The win improves IU’s record to 11-8-1 and its conference record to 1-0. IU plays Northwestern again tonight for the second half of the double-header and will start junior pitcher Brian Hobbie.
Taylor Lehman
