Hoosiers kick off Big Ten season

IU coach Bob Morgan wanted to add another game to the Hoosiers' schedule before entering the Big Ten season. The Hoosier players wanted to get some more innings and at-bats under their belts. This past week both of their wishes came true.\nWednesday's 26-9 victory against Shawnee State gave the Hoosiers a chance to polish their skills before the start of the Big Ten season. Morgan was able to use five different pitchers in the game and allotted extra playing time to some of the younger Hoosier backups.\n"We've really struggled with our pitching lately, and it was nice to get some guys some extra time on the mound," Morgan said. "We were able to get some of our younger guys into the game as well."\nIU is set to begin a four-game series Friday against the Northwestern Wildcats. The Hoosiers are coming off a season in which they finished 9-22 in the Big Ten, while the Wildcats tallied a 14-17 record. Despite their losing record from a year ago, senior right fielder Joe Kemp said the Wildcats are not a team to be taken lightly.\n"They have some great pitching," Kemp said. "They always have some of the top pitchers in the Big Ten and we need to stay disciplined."\nNorthwestern's starting pitchers have combined for 88 strikeouts on the season so far and hold a 3.88 ERA as a team. Luckily for the Hoosiers, the IU offense carries the top team batting average in the Big Ten at .357. Senior third baseman holds the top batting average on the team at .479, followed by junior second baseman Jay Brant and junior left fielder Zach Boswell. Each are both batting over .400 as well. With a 14-6 overall record now and one of the top ranked offenses in the Big Ten, junior first baseman Ryan Parker said he hopes the team can keep up the momentum.\n"It's going to be really hard," Parker said of the team maintaining its top ranked offense. "We will just have to keep going strong though to keep it up."\nDespite the Hoosiers' blowout victory Wednesday, Kemp said beginning this weekend the team will have a new challenge ahead of it.\n"Today (Wednesday) was great, but the Big Ten is a whole other story," Kemp said. "It's really a dog fight (in the Big Ten) and we need to keep up the enthusiasm and hard work."\n-- Contact Staff Writer Matt Mattucci at mmattucc@indiana.edu.