IU wins 17th consecutive game in front of record-setting crowd

The largest crowd in Bart Kaufman Field history saw No. 17 IU take down Illinois 3-2 Friday night for its NCAA-best 17th consecutive victory.

2,757 people showed up to see IU (24-3, 7-0) take down Illinois (18-8, 1-3) in the Hoosiers’ first ever night game. IU Coach Tracy Smith said he was ecstatic to see the ballpark filled.

“Personally I’m bursting at the seams,” Smith said. “This is what we thought of eight years ago when we had the vision of what this could be in Bloomington. I think people are starting to feel that and see that, it was a lot of fun.”

In the first inning, senior outfielder Justin Cureton reached base on a throwing error by Illinois shortstop Thomas Lindauer and then stole second base. Sophomore infielder Sam Travis brought Cureton home with a sacrifice fly to give the Hoosiers another first-inning run and a 1-0 edge.

In first innings this year, the Hoosiers have now outscored their opponents 29-4.

A pair of solo home runs to right field by senior infielder Michael Basil and junior outfielder Casey Smith in the second inning gave the Hoosiers the 3-0 lead.

Despite losing, Illinois outhit IU eight to four, and half of IU’s hits were home runs.

“We didn’t really hit too well tonight,” Casey Smith said. “But yeah they would fall in place over the fence for us.”

Illinois responded in the top of the third with a leadoff triple by catcher Jason Goldstein. Right fielder Will Krug scored the catcher on a sacrifice fly to cut IU’s lead to 3-1.

Both IU and Illinois’s pitching then settled in, hurling a combined nine consecutive scoreless frames before Illinois broke the scoring drought in the top of the eighth.

Smith said he felt the momentum shifting in the seventh inning, so he felt the need to bring in freshman pitcher Scott Effross.

“I wasn’t anticipating using Effross,” Smith said. “But when he came before the game and was like ‘I’m fine, I’m ready to roll,’ and I thought his velocity was up tonight, it was just up in the zone.”

On a full count in the eighth inning, Effross hit Krug to give him the free pass to first base. Krug then stole second and was brought home on an RBI double by Justin Parr to clip IU’s lead to 3-2.

IU junior pitcher Ryan Halstead was brought in to get the four-out save. The junior came through for his ball club, getting his fifth save of the season and securing the program’s 17th consecutive victory.

“I thought Halstead was to me, the key of the game,” Smith said. “Halstead to me was sharp and competitive and to me shut the door on them.”

Illinois starting pitcher Kevin Johnson had his twenty-second birthday spoiled despite being what Casey Smith called the best opposing pitcher IU has seen this year.

“That guy was unbelievable,” Smith said. “That was probably the top, he what, four-hit us? That guy was very good and he stayed down in the zone and he was one of the top we’ve seen.”

Johnson gave up only four hits to IU’s Big Ten leading offense. The senior pitched an eight-inning complete game.

“He was a great pitcher,” IU junior starting pitcher Joey DeNato said. “He held out batters in check throughout the whole game, except for the second inning.”

DeNato pitched six innings, gave up seven hits, one earned run and struck out six to improve his record to 4-1 on the season.

“He was just being Joey,” sophomore catcher Kyle Schwarber said. “He was just pounding the strike zone, I mean that’s really all you can say about Joey.”

Seating capacity for Bart Kaufman Field is listed at 2,500, so having an over-capacity crowd for IU’s first night game was huge for the team, Schwarber said.

“I mean that was awesome,” the Middletown, Ohio native said. “Coming out of the dugout for the intros and seeing all the people out there, especially for a kid like me not from a big area and you see all these people out here, 2,700 people, I mean it’s awesome.”