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Sh: IU 'not satisfied' headed into Big Ten Tournament

Ssubh: Hoosiers open on Wednesday with game against Penn State

By Zachary Osterman

zosterma@indiana.edu

Just weeks ago, it would have been nearly unimaginable to picture the IU baseball team in their first Big Ten Tournament in five years.

But splitting a four-game series with powerhouse Michigan then taking three of four from in-state rival Purdue powered IU to an 11-5 conference finish and a Big Ten Tournament appearance. What's more, it has arguably the Big Ten's hottest team believing they can keep winning on through the weekend.

IU (26-26, 15-17) could certainly make a case for their hot streak, having just finished a sweep of Michigan State last weekend, the team's first sweep of a conference opponent since 1999. However, IU coach Tracy Smith said again Tuesday that he feels his team is handling its newfound success like a squad of veterans.

"The thing I'm most impressed with is that they're not satisfied," Smith said by phone.

IU has put up some impressive numbers for a team that only on the last weekend qualified for the Big Ten Tournament. The Hoosiers are one-thousandth of a point behind Illinois for best team batting average, and they have more hits, runs, doubles, triples and home runs than the Illini, who are currently ranked first in the Big Ten in hitting. The Hoosiers' pitching staff came on strong late in the season to move up from eighth near the end of classes all the way to sixth, cutting the team ERA from 6.86 to 6.21.

The Hoosiers' first-round opponent will be Penn State (26-29, 17-15), a team that took all four games at home in the two teams' only regular-season meeting. It was the next weekend - against Michigan - that the Hoosiers began to turn their season around.

Senior shortstop Tyler Cox said the Hoosiers feel good heading into the tournament, and they'd like to return to the Nittany Lions some of what they got on the road in April.

"We definitely owe Penn State," Cox said. "Not only are we playing to win a Big Ten championship, but we owe them something in return."

Penn State offers plenty of fight for the Hoosiers, having finished third in the conference, outdueling Illinois for the No. 3 spot. The Nittany Lions come into the series off a series split with Minnesota and a sweep of Iowa before that.

On paper, the Hoosiers would seem easily the better team, besting the Nittany Lions by a wide margin in hitting while only standing one place behind Penn State in Big Ten pitching. The Hoosiers' improved defense over the last third of the regular season even moved them to ninth in the Big Ten, one spot ahead of new cellar-dwellar Penn State.

But the Nittany Lions still hold a 4-0 advantage in the season series, something the Hoosiers have not forgotten. After a five-year absence from a competition the Hoosiers last won in 2002, Cox put it simply: "We've got a lot to prove."

That attitude has been prevalent since shortly after the Hoosiers notched a resounding 14-5 game-four victory over Michigan State last Saturday to book a place in the Big Ten Tournament.

Senior utility infielder David Trager said the Hoosiers "deserve" to be in the tournament, but they also know that the regular season means nothing from this point forward.

Trager acknowledged that the Hoosiers hit a low point during the Penn State series, which saw them fall to 2-10 over their three previous series. However, he said the team used that and the subsequent series against Michigan as a rallying point, something they had struggled with in the past.

"This year, we really regrouped and kept playing our game," Trager said on the team bus headed back from Michigan State on Saturday. "We're looking at a situation now ... it's definitely put us in a very good position."

Smith is optimistic about his team's fortunes in the tournament, provided they can keep backing up one of the conference's top offenses with vastly improved defense and pitching.

"The guys have a good workman's approach to it and if everybody's healthy ... I think we'll have a chance."