IU looks to improve pitching staff performance

Junior Joey DeNato said he feared for his job. IU’s pitching staff ace was nervous he would lose his spot in the rotation. IU Coach Tracy Smith kept him out of fall ball until the team traveled to the Dominican Republic. This is the quality — and quantity — of arms the Hoosiers now boast in their pitching corps.

The only way IU could have earned NCAA Tournament berth last season was to win the Big Ten tournament. Purdue defeated IU in the conference tournament championship game — delayed by a brawl — by one run, and the Hoosiers’ season was finished. A poor start to the season, sullied by errors and inconsistent starting pitching, denied Smith’s team an at-large bid.

Smith said traditionally, he and his staff have put all their eggs in one basket.

“To get teams into the NCAA, you have to have a high RPI,” Smith said. “To have a high RPI, you have to have a decent schedule and you have to win. And you have to win your out-of-conference stuff because we’re not a guaranteed multi-bid league.”

Smith said he would send his best pitchers to the mound during weekend series.

“The weekend games are important, but so are the midweek games,” he said. “What we would do is we would rest guys, we would do whatever. If you go back and look at some of our midweek scores, I do need to apologize. There was a method behind the madness, but I’m not sure it was the proper method.”

That method led to a 7-7 record in midweek contests last season. Their wins came with an average of 2.1 runs, however in their seven losses, the Hoosiers fell by an average of 6.7 runs.

Eight times last season, including four times in conference play, the Hoosiers’ starter pitched two innings or less. Junior Ryan Halstead said IU’s increased depth will ameliorate the consequences stemming from that issue.

“I think it’s going to help us for sure,” Halstead said. “Last year, thank God for Jonny (Hoffman) because he carried the bullpen. We were kind of short on pitching. This year, we got so many more arms back. We got so much more depth. Aaron (Slegers) is back, pitching really well for us. With depth, we also have more experience. I think we’re going to be pretty good pitching-wise this year.”

Smith said Halstead, who made 22 appearances including four starts, was hurt a lot last year. Now, after more time to practice, his repertoire of pitches has resulted in more empty swings from opposing batters.

“He’s been missing a lot of bats in our intrasquads this year,” Smith said. “I feel very, very comfortable with him. His stuff is back to what it was.”

DeNato, sophomore Aaron Slegers and sophomore Kyle Hart are slated to start this weekend. However, 10 freshman pitchers will help fuel competition within the staff.

“All these pitchers were having a lot of success,” DeNato said. “I think that I definitely had to get back out there to earn my spot. Even though I was the Friday guy my freshman and sophomore year, it still wasn’t set in stone because there’s so much competition (this season).”

Sophomore catcher Kyle Schwarber said his experience has helped him be a better leader to the freshmen pitchers.

“My second year here, I’m not so shy,” he said.

Schwarber said he’s not afraid to figure out what the freshmen offer.

“We got a lot of competition for our starting slots,” Schwarber said. “Everything is subject to change after the first weekend.”

Smith said a lot is at stake at the beginning of the season.

“Your chances at the NCAA Tournament are really defined here in the next five weeks,” Smith said. “I think we have the pitching staff that’s going to give us the chance to win not only consistently when we’re piling up games, but also when we get into conference.

“If we take care of the baseball, this team has a chance to do some pretty special things.”