Sophomore utility player Matt Lloyd had gone five games without driving in a run for the Hoosiers.
He didn’t let it get to six.
Lloyd had an RBI in two separate at-bats tonight, but his second decided the game.
With two balls, two strikes and two outs in the bottom of the 11th inning, Lloyd smacked a walk-off home run to right field and proceeded to flip his bat, trot around the bases and jump into a sea of teammates surrounding home plate to celebrate IU’s 3-2 extra-innings victory against Ball State.
Perched next to the opening of the dugout, sophomore starting pitcher Tim Herrin was eager for IU, 15-11-2, to pick up the victory against Ball State, 11-18, and end the Hoosiers’ four-game winless streak.
“I was in the dugout where the opening is so I could run out if something happened and that was awesome,” said Herrin, who gave up one run on three hits in four innings Tuesday night. “That’s just great baseball. Matt Lloyd has been the guy for us the last couple weeks. It’s just awesome to see. It was a long game that tested us. Baseball’s going to test you, but it’s how you respond, and we did a good job.”
The offense for both teams was silent for the majority of the game. IU only recorded seven hits, and Ball State had five. Neither team recorded a hit after the eighth inning until Lloyd’s home run three innings later.
Lloyd’s previous RBI occurred in the first inning, when the Okotoks, Canada, native stepped up to the plate with two outs and ripped a single up the middle to knock in senior left fielder Alex Krupa and advance sophomore third baseman Luke Miller to second base.
The very next batter, junior right fielder Logan Sowers, followed suit and served up a two-out RBI single up the middle to plate Miller and give IU an early 2-0 lead.
The Hoosiers wouldn’t push another run across until Lloyd’s home run, his third hit of the ballgame, in the 11th.
“That was an impressive swing,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said of Lloyd’s homer. “We’ve been struggling a little bit. To come up and get a clutch swing like that is huge.”
With bases loaded in the top of the eighth, Lloyd was called to the mound and delivered with a one-pitch double play to keep the score tied and IU’s chances alive.
“It’s unbelievable,” Lloyd said. “I think this is going to be a little jumpstart for us, and it’s great to get another W. We use all of our guys and are going to need everybody this year so to be that guy feels really good, but it’s going to be a team effort.”
