For just the third time since Bart Kaufman Field opened its gates in 2013, IU baseball will lose a weekend series in Bloomington.
Nebraska’s 3-1 victory Saturday over the Hoosiers clinched the series win for the Cornhuskers, 15-10, who won 7-3 Friday night in the series opener. IU, 14-11-1, will look to avoid being swept Sunday.
IU is now 14-3 in Big Ten series at Bart Kaufman Field, with its only losses at the hands of Michigan and Michigan State in 2015 and then Nebraska on Saturday.
Junior pitcher Brian Hobbie got the starting nod for the Hoosiers and IU continued the trend of poor opening innings that has plagued the team in recent games.
Just one game removed from finishing off a complete game on the mound in last Friday’s win over Northwestern, Hobbie gave up a leadoff walk to Nebraska freshman Mojo Hagge, who later came around to score on a double play after the next two batters reached on errors to load the bases. The run was unearned.
“You just really have to separate yourself from that as a pitcher,” said Hobbie of dealing with fielding errors. “Just not letting those little things affect you, keep playing your game and separate yourself because you can’t do anything about that.”
Like his performance against Northwestern, Hobbie settled in after IU fell into a hole in the top of the first inning. Between the third and fifth innings Saturday, Hobbie retired seven straight Cornhuskers.
Hobbie kept the Cornhuskers off the board after the first inning until the sixth, when Nebraska senior first baseman Ben Miller drove in a run on a single to left field.
“I had three pitches working for a little bit,” Hobbie said. “It was kind of a little bit of everything. We had seen the hitters yesterday, so we had a decent idea of how to pitch them. It was just some good pitches and we got a lot of balls in play outs.”
Hobbie fought his way out of two bases loaded jams, in the first and sixth innings, and minimized the potential damage by just giving up one run in each of those frames.
“Not trying to do too much, not trying to be a superhero on every pitch,” Hobbie said of pitching in a jam. “Just let the ball go in play and turn some double plays.”
Nebraska’s third and final run came in the top of the seventh when senior second baseman Jake Schleppenbach hit a solo home run to end Hobbie’s day on the mound. Hobbie’s final line in his second loss of the season was 6.0 innings pitched with seven hits, three runs - just two of which were earned - a walk and three strikeouts.
Schleppenbach, who entered the game with a .169 batting average and no homers, provided a spark for Nebraska out of the nine-hole in the lineup by reaching base three times in four plate appearances.
IU was unable to get its bats going and was outhit 10-5 by the visitors. IU Coach Chris Lemonis said his team isn't competing offensively right now.
“We’re just swinging out of the zone, it probably looked like we were swinging too hard, but give credit to Nebraska," Lemonis said. "I thought their guys pitched well. But we’ve got to do a better job if we are going to compete. It feels like to me that we’re trying to do a little too much.”
The Hoosiers’ lone run came on an RBI double by senior center fielder Craig Dedelow in the bottom of the sixth. Freshman first baseman Matt Gorski, who walked to open the inning, crossed the plate to score.
Sophomore pitcher Pauly Milto will start for the Hoosiers in the series finale Sunday against Nebraska.
