Team's goals updated after super regional

For most of the year, the sign inside the Scott Rolen Clubhouse read “Omaha.”

Nothing more.

That was objective number two of 10 for the IU baseball team this season. Now that objective has changed.

The Hoosiers have checked that off and are heading to Omaha, Neb., Saturday for a matchup with Louisville in IU’s first College World Series appearance.

“We had to readjust our ‘Omaha’ to ‘winning Omaha’ now,” sophomore catcher Kyle Schwarber said. “We weren’t too specific when we wrote down our goals, and we wrote down Omaha. But now we’re there, we’ve got to make it more specific. And I feel like that’s what this team is doing a good job of handling, that ‘Oh, we’re going to Omaha. This is Omaha.’ We’re focused on we’ve got more baseball to play.”

The only two goals the team hasn’t been able to check off is a team fielding percentage of .970 or better, which currently sits at .965, and a team batting average of .310 or better currently at .306.

At the beginning of the season, IU Coach Tracy Smith had the idea of putting a visible reminder of all the goals for the team inside the clubhouse so that everyone stayed focused on the task at hand. Then, it seemed like “Omaha” was all that was necessary.

Now the goal is more than Omaha.

“It’s everybody’s dream when you play college baseball to get to Omaha,” Smith said. “That’s a good thing and that’s a bad thing because you don’t really say, ‘Let’s go win a National Championship.’ Everybody says, ‘Let’s get to Omaha.’ Well now we’re at Omaha, so it’s like we’ve had to readjust our goals. Our goals are to win this thing.”
Schwarber said the team doesn’t do anything when it achieves one of the goals, such as defeating Louisville two out of three times in the regular season. The players and coaches just check that objective off mentally.

After defeating Florida State in Tallahassee, Fla., Sunday to advance to Omaha, Schwarber said Smith immediately acknowledged that the board needed to be updated.

“He came in the dugout,” Schwarber said. “And he’s like ‘Oh wow, our billboard says Omaha, it doesn’t say anything specific about Omaha.’”

For senior shortstop Michael Basil, the thought of having Omaha listed as a reachable goal is something he didn’t think would happen when he committed to IU.

Junior third baseman Dustin DeMuth didn’t know if it was possible this year.

“I didn’t really expect getting to Omaha to be honest,” he said. “After last year we played well down the stretch, we played well in the Big Ten Tournament, It kind of carried over to this year and it showed this year.”

This year IU has won a Big Ten outright regular season title, a Big Ten Championship, hosted its first regional, and advanced to not only its first super regional but also its first College World Series.

“It’s a surreal feeling,” Basil said. “When I committed here I don’t know if I honestly thought Omaha was a possibility. But coming into the season we made it a goal to go to Omaha because we knew we had the team.

“It’s an amazing stride for the program. To be able to be along for that ride and get to end my career in Omaha, it’s the best possible way you could end a baseball career.”

But for sophomore designated hitter Scott Donley, the mission is far from over. Despite having accomplished so many firsts this season, the team now has one more mental check to make to the big board inside the Scott Rolen Clubhouse.

“You just look at the big picture,” Donley said. “You can’t think about anything like (what we’ve accomplished already). You play college baseball to try to get to the championship game and play under those lights. You can’t be satisfied with one win or winning the Big Ten or regionals and all that.”