Baseball team welcomes Xavier for home opener

After a long road trip, the IU baseball team is returning to comfortable surroundings.
The Hoosiers (9-10) play their first contest at Sembower Field after 19 consecutive away games against the Xavier Musketeers (4-15) today.

“We’re excited to finally be playing in front of our home fans after over a month away from Bloomington,” IU coach Tracy Smith said.

Sophomore Ethan Wilson is tagged as IU’s starting pitcher for the 3 p.m. game.

Primarily an infielder, Wilson will look to neutralize a Musketeers offense with a batting average worse than .250 on the season. Wilson has pitched very well filling in for the Hoosiers’ pitching staff, which has only five healthy pitchers on its roster.

He currently sports a 1.93 ERA in 9.1 innings pitched and limits hitters to a team-leading .100 average.

The Hoosiers’ offense will be led by the powerful 3-4 combination of junior first baseman Jerrud Sabourin, who is hitting .425 with 2 home runs and 17 RBI this season, and sophomore outfielder Alex Dickerson, who leads the team with 8 home runs and 27 RBI. IU is averaging more than 10 runs per game in its last five contests.

The Hoosiers will be entering on a sour note, however, as they saw their four-game winning streak snapped Tuesday. Morehead State defeated IU in a 20-15 slugfest in which 43 hits were combined between the two teams.

Trailing 9-4 in the sixth inning, the Hoosier offense did not register an out through its first eight hitters. Three consecutive singles led to freshman shortstop Michael Basil’s three-run home run to cut the deficit to one. Sophomore catcher Josh Lyon then stepped up to the plate and deposited a 1-2 pitch down the right-field line to tie the game at nine.

Following the 10-run sixth from the Hoosiers, the Eagles made a comeback of their own, scoring 11 unanswered runs through the eighth inning.

Freshman pitcher Mike McKinley would remain in the game for the Hoosiers in the seventh. With two outs and runners on first and second, MSU designated hitter Cameron Flynn hit a home run to deep right field to give the Eagles a 15-14 lead.

Freshman pitcher Casey Smith walked the first batter in the bottom of the eighth, and senior closer Chris Squires came in to limit the damage. His defense, though, would let him down.

MSU pushed across five more runs, none of them credited to Squires, on four singles and three errors.