IU defense will be main focus

Last season, the IU baseball team captured the No. 2 seed in the Big Ten Tournament despite its defense.

It is essential to getting off to a crisper start in the field this time around, IU Coach Tracy Smith said.

“Last year was one of the craziest years,” Smith said. “It’s hard for me to even talk about it. We were making errors like I’ve never seen, so I got to believe that was an aberration.”

The Hoosiers had the most errors of any Big Ten school by a significant
margin.

They finished with 109 and the lowest fielding percentage in the conference at 0.955 percent.

Northwestern had the second most errors in the league at 82. IU had more than double the amount of errors than Minnesota, who had the least amount in the Big Ten with 54.

Senior infielder Michael Basil led his team in errors the last two seasons with 23 in 2012 and 19 in 2011. Basil said he knows the importance of getting off to a good start in the field and thinks this year will be better.

“Because of the maturity at every position and also the competitiveness, we have back-ups who can come in and take over,” Basil said. “Two freshmen were fielding great in fall ball, so I’m like, ‘I have to step up my game.’”

Smith said he noticed the improvement in Basil’s fielding and thought he thrived off the stiff competition.

For the entire team, having more depth has increased the level of play, Smith said.
“We had other people come in to practice and say, ‘You never take infield like that. That was good,’” Smith said. “So I think competition is good.”

Not many players finished where they started on the field last season, which Basil said is a “musical chairs of positions.”

Smith said moving players around contributed to the high number of errors, particularly in the beginning the season. But it still is not a viable excuse, he said.

“As a coach, you wish it wouldn’t matter,” Smith said. “I’m of the mindset where if you’re good, you’re good, you just make plays. I don’t care if I stuck you in center field, but I understand sometimes the immature mentality of these guys.”

Junior pitcher Joey DeNato said the team has set a new goal to get a .970 fielding percentage or better this year.

He said as a pitcher, worrying about what defense is doing behind you has no benefits.
“As a pitcher, you don’t really think about it too much,” DeNato said. “It does affect your confidence as a team though.”

The Hoosiers head into the season projected to finish atop the conference by the Big Ten coaches along with national media outlets Baseball America, Perfect Game and
BaseballInsider.com.

Smith said he thinks limiting the number of errors is vital to reaching the lofty expectations.

“If we could hold onto the ball, we could do some special things,” Smith said.