IU moves to 2-0 in tourney with 15-6 win

After falling behind early for the second straight game, the IU baseball team was determined to respond quickly this time around.

The Hoosiers scored five runs in the second and four runs in both the fifth and sixth to demolish Austin Peay 15-6 Friday at Bart Kaufman Field, sending IU to the championship game of the Bloomington regional.

IU will play the winner of Sunday’s elimination game between Austin Peay and Valparaiso at 7:05 p.m. and can capture the regional championship with a win.

The team that fights off elimination in the afternoon game would have to beat the Hoosiers twice to win the regional championship.

IU pounded out 14 hits against Austin Peay, but the Governors quieted the home crowd early on. Reed Harper rocked a 1-1  pitch from junior lefty Joey DeNato into the left-field bullpen for a quick 3-0 Governors lead.

It was nearly 5-0 Austin Peay when P.J. Torress drove a DeNato fastball deep to left, but junior Casey Smith made the catch while leaning against the wall.

Unlike its dramatic 5-4 walk-off win Friday night against Valparaiso, the Hoosiers got the bats working quickly to put the game out of reach by the sixth inning.

Dustin DeMuth led off with a double to right-center and later scored on a passed ball that also advanced Chad Clark to second with Justin Cureton at the plate.

After a Will Nolden flyout that advanced the runners to second and third, Kyle Schwarber laced a two-run single up the middle that tied the game at 3-3.

Sam Travis then rocked a two-runner homer off the scoreboard in left-center on the first pitch he saw, scoring Schwarber and giving IU a 5-3 lead.

The Governors got a run back in bottom half on an RBI-double by Jordan Hankins that scored Dylan Riner, who singled and reached second on a passed ball.

That's when the fireworks really started for the Hoosiers (45-14).

IU extended the lead to 7-4 in the fourth on a two-run single by Basil that drove in Nolden and Travis, who finished 2-for-3 with four runs, three RBI and three walks.

In the fifth, the rout was officially on.

The Hoosiers strung together four hits and a walk to score four times, the highlight a bases-clearing double to right-center by Donley that extended the Hoosiers' lead to 11-4.

IU made it back-to-back four-run innings in the sixth, needing just two hits. The Hoosiers drew three straight walks off righty Dan Whitson, the latter two RBI-walks by Travis and Donley with the bases loaded.

Basil added a two run single to left to extend the lead to 15-6.

DeNato (9-2) was shaky through the first two innings, allowing four runs on six hits and Torres' near-home run, but settled down after that, not allowing hits over his final four innings of work.

In total, he allowed four earned runs through six innings with nine strikeouts and two walks.

Austin Peay starter Casey Delgado (9-3) did not make it out of the second inning, allowing five earned runs in 1.2 innings pitched for the Governors (46-14).