Hoosiers offense powers team to weekend sweep

Senior shortstop Michael Basil’s RBI double in the first inning plated IU’s second run, and the Hoosiers went on to defeat UMBC (Maryland-Baltimore County) 7-1 Sunday afternoon at TicketReturn.com Field in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The victory secured IU’s best start under IU Coach Tracy Smith. The Hoosiers also began the 2005 season with a 6-2 mark.

“It’s a big part of what we’ve talked about, what we want to accomplish as a team,” he said. “We’re certainly in a heck of a lot better position than we were in years gone by. [There is] a lot of season left. We’re just going to take everything in stride.”

In their first five games of 2013, the Hoosiers scored one first-inning run Feb. 16 against Connecticut. During their three-game set in Myrtle Beach, IU’s offense posted seven opening-inning runs, including two on Sunday.

“We got up early, so it made it easy for me to start attacking hitters and throw strikes and try to avoid walks,” said sophomore right-handed pitcher Aaron Slegers, who picked up his first career win Sunday. “My approach from the get-go was to get after them early and let my stuff do the talking. I really wanted to make earn their way on.”

The Scottsdale, Ariz., native threw six innings of shutout baseball, allowing five hits and striking out six without giving up a walk.

“It was good to get some quality innings for the team,” he said.

Smith said at IU Baseball Media Day last month that the team’s chances to earn an at-large NCAA Tournament bid will be defined in the first five weeks of the season.

Senior outfielder Justin Cureton said picking up three wins this weekend is substantial.
“It’s been huge,” he said. “We played some good opponents. We knew it’d be hard. Getting these three wins this weekend was huge for our tournament bid.”

The victory notched IU’s first sweep of a three-game nonconference weekend series since Smith’s first season in 2006, when the Hoosiers won three games in two days against Florida A&M in Tallahassee as spring break drew to a close.

On Saturday, IU’s offense staked junior ace Joey DeNato to a three-run lead before he threw a pitch, and the San Diego native recorded his best outing of the season against a Coastal Carolina team that entered play with a record of 4-4.

The Hoosiers’ southpaw starter scattered five hits over 7.1 innings and allowed one earned run despite issuing five free passes. DeNato also struck out three Chanticleer hitters in his first win of the season.

Smith said he started DeNato on Saturday because he predicted the Chanticleers would be more aggressive on the bases. DeNato has picked off 21 runners in his career, including one on Saturday.

On Friday, sophomore first baseman Sam Travis’s three-run home run gave the Hoosiers an 8-5 lead over West Virginia that junior closer Ryan Halstead secured to earn his second save.

Travis’s second home run of the season came in the eighth inning and powered the Hoosiers to their fourth win despite couple of base running miscues, three errors and a start from sophomore Kyle Hart that spanned 3.2 innings.