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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU drops battle to foe ISU

Mere inches prevented the Hoosiers from escaping the fourth inning unscathed.

Instead, Indiana State scored four runs in the frame on its way to a 13-8 win.

The Sycamores scored runs in every inning but the second, helping them earn the win, their third in a row and eighth in their last nine.

Freshman left fielder Chris Sujka clubbed a three-run home run to left field in the second to give IU a 3-1 lead. It was his third home run of the season, and all have been worth three runs. It gave him a team-high 15 RBI.

Sophomore Ryan Halstead, who tied a school record with nine saves as a freshman, got the start for the Hoosiers.

“Let’s start him, get him some innings and go from there,” IU Coach Tracy Smith said. “We’re 10 games in, trying to get some guys innings and save the arms of regular starters. With Ryan, it’s always situations where we’re trying to put him in with a lead.”

Three times last season, he had appearances spanning three innings. He was on a pitch count today, Smith said.

Offensively, junior outfielder Justin Cureton batted ninth through the first 10 games.

Against ISU, he led off.

“We’re trying to find ways,” Smith said. “We’re so young. Guys are inconsistent (in) their approaches. He’s had a pretty good approach lately, and with his maturity, we wanted to get some maturity at the top of the lineup to get some guys on base so (freshman catcher Kyle) Schwarber can be hitting with people on base.”

The junior center fielder hit 2-4, including a two-run home run in the sixth.

With 25-mile-an-hour winds blowing out, any ball hit in the air had a chance to leave the yard. Five did — all traveled over the left field wall.

Smith emphasized the need for his pitchers to keep the ball down.

“I felt good about our guys,” he said. “I felt good about the guys we had going today. Unfortunately, they got a couple pitches up, and if the ball got up in the air today, it was going out of the park. A couple bad pitches in a couple scenarios and that hurt us.”

Indiana State scored four times on home runs. IU pitchers walked five Sycamore batters, and four times, the recipient of the walk scored.

The loss dropped IU to 54-40-1 all-time against ISU.

It was the second-consecutive game the Hoosiers allowed 13 runs, and Smith said the number of errors his team has committed worries him.

“Defensively, we’re struggling,” he said. “This team needs to get better and understand the importance of defense. In spite of our hitting woes, if we take care of the baseball and play good defense, you still win that game.”

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