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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU's season ends with 1-0 Oregon State loss

College World Series: Game 3

OMAHA, Neb. — From the get go, it appeared the Hoosiers never really had a chance.

When it needed offense — one of its strengths — the IU baseball team could not muster up an attack at the worst possible time.

Oregon State eliminated the Hoosiers from the College World Series behind a dominant effort by Beavers’ starter Matt Boyd, who fired a complete-game shutout in OSU’s 1-0 win Wednesday at TD Ameritrade Park.

IU (49-16) had one last bit of life with two outs in the ninth when sophomore first baseman Sam Travis blooped a single to right-center before freshman second baseman Nick Ramos grounded out to 3rd, ending the Hoosiers’ season.

“All I hope is that whether it’s two hours from now, two days from now, two months from now, that they can sit back and say they were part of the greatest baseball team in Indiana history,” IU Coach Tracy Smith said.

The pitching was certainly strong — IU entered the CWS with the nation’s eighth-best ERA — and performed well in Omaha, as the Hoosiers allowed just six runs in three games.

But the team’s hallmark all season was its strong offense, and in Omaha it never really showed up. IU struck out 38 times over the three games, scoring all of six runs.
“It was definitely frustrating,” Travis said. “The bats have been there all year and we come down there and they just weren’t there. Tip my hat to our pitchers, they did their job. We just couldn’t capitalize and get runs.”

They Hoosiers managed just four hits off Boyd (11-4), who struck out 11. IU did not get its first hit until a one-single by senior shortstop Michael Basil in the fifth. He became the only IU runner to make to second base when senior third baseman Dustin DeMuth laid down a bunt single the very next pitch.

Junior left fielder Casey Smith flew out and sophomore second baseman Chad Clark popped out to 3rd to end the threat.

IU finished 1-2 in its first trip to the College World Series, its lone win a 2-0 victory against Louisville in the team’s opening game on Saturday. Both losses were by one run.

Nonetheless, this IU team will stand the test of time as the first to reach Omaha.
“I mean it surpassed my wildest dreams,” Basil said. “When I committed to Indiana, I never though that this was really a possibility when I was coming here. It’s really unbelievable. I mean it stings right now, but more than anything I remember the group of guys.”

The Beavers (52-12) got the game’s only run on Jake Rodriguez’ sacrifice fly to right in the fourth inning that scored Kavin Keyes, who led off the inning with a single to center.

IU’s hitting woes wasted sophomore starter Aaron Slegers’ first complete game.
It was nothing short of a historic season for IU, which set a record for single-season wins and swept the Big Ten titles, ending decade-old conference championship droughts. It swept the Bloomington regional and swept college baseball powerhouse Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla.

Finally, it won its first game in the CWS on its first try.

“It’s not over-achievement, because we’ve been solid all year we’ve had the confidence, the talent and the mature approach to play good baseball all year and we knew this team was something special,” senior center fielder Justin Cureton said. “To put a team like Indiana on the map is huge, especially for our school because we achieved a lot of firsts this year. It was just a great season.”

Now that the Hoosiers are on the map, a new standard has been set for a once-dormant program.

Travis said anything short of a repeat trip to Omaha in 2014 will not cut it.

“It’s awesome to be a part of this team and it’s awesome to look who we got coming back next year,” Travis said. “We’re definitely losing some key guys, but hopefully we got enough coming back and we got some guys coming in that can help us get back here next year.”

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