DeNato shuts down Louisville

OMAHA, Neb. — If tracking pitch count is overrated, then Joey DeNato is Exhibit A.

The junior southpaw fired a complete-game shutout as IU beat Louisville 2-0 to win its first College World Series game Saturday at TD Ameritrade Park.

The Hoosiers (49-14) will face Mississippi State at 8 p.m. Monday.

DeNato (10-2) needed 136 pitches to finish off the Cardinals, surrendering just four hits while never allowing a runner past second base.

“In the midst of a game like that, you never think about pitch count or your arm’s getting tired or not,” he said. “My arm felt just as good in the ninth inning as it did in the first.”

Even when DeNato hit 115 pitches through seven innings and 130 through eight, even when two of DeNato’s outs in the latter innings were well-struck liners and when he gave up a sharp double with two outs in the eighth, there wasn’t so much as a passing thought of taking him out — from either coach or player.

“I think we were on the same page,” DeNato said. “He knew I wanted to go out and I knew I wanted to go out, so yeah.”

“We didn’t say one word to each other the entire ballgame. Truth?” IU Coach Tracy Smith asked DeNato.

“Yes.”

“Exactly,” Smith said.

Such arm strength at the end of games wasn’t always there for DeNato. At 5 feet, 10 inches, he tended to wear down toward the end of seasons.

He pitched in the Cape Cod League for two summers but decided to not throw this fall. The time off paid dividends while he rehabbed and strengthened his arm.

“Last year at this point during the season, I knew my arm definitely wasn’t 100 percent,” said DeNato, who finished with eight strikeouts and three walks. “And this year, I really focused on taking care of my arm and doing rehab and all that stuff every single week. Now my arm feels just as strong as it did day one.”

DeNato’s outing could have hardly come at a better time. The Hoosiers managed just seven hits and ran themselves out of scoring opportunities twice, leaving 11 men on base in all.

It also snaps a streak of three consecutive games in which an IU starter failed to finish the sixth inning — including DeNato’s three-inning clunker against Florida State on June 8 — and allows Smith pitching staff flexibility.

“That’s the tone-setter for the whole week that we’re here,” sophomore catcher Kyle Schwarber said. “I feel like that’s gonna play a big role in the morale of our bullpen and our starting pitchers.”

But as IU polished its first College Series win on its first try, the night belonged to
DeNato.

“That was huge,” Smith said of DeNato’s performance. “Our mindset coming into the game was (to) stay in the winner’s bracket. If we had to use tomorrow’s starter, we were going to do it.”

Among his eight strikeouts were three of the caught-looking variety — he froze a different hitter in the fourth, fifth and eighth innings on inside fastballs — illustrating the command he had of all three of his pitches.

“It was great that he was having his control on everything,” Schwarber said. “I mean, his changeup was phenomenal. There really wasn’t anything that wasn’t working for him.”

IU jumped out to a 1-0 lead in the first when sophomore designated hitter Scott Donley singled up the middle, scoring Schwarber. Junior outfielder Will Nolden was picked off trying to steal third by Louisville starter Chad Green, who lasted just two-plus innings.

The Hoosiers tacked on a second run in the third on senior shortstop Michael Basil’s RBI single to left, which scored Nolden before Schwarber was gunned down at the plate by Coco Johnson.

Nolden returned the favor in the bottom of the third. Cole Sturgeon singled sharply to right, and Nolden gunned home to nail Sutton Whiting who was trying to score from second. Nolden hit Schwarber on the fly, and the catcher was waiting for Whiting at the plate.

Green (10-4) allowed two earned runs with four strikeouts and four walks for Louisville (51-13).