The world's stage

It’s not who you beat, but when you beat them.

When Indiana and Louisville play each other at 8 p.m. Saturday in the opening round of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., it will be the fourth meeting this season between the two teams and on the biggest stage yet.

The Hoosiers took two of three from the Cardinals in the regular season, an error late in the third game costing them a sweep. To IU Coach Tracy Smith, though, the postseason is a new season, and regular season head-to-head results mean little.

“I would say they’re playing really, really good baseball right now, better than they played earlier in the season,” he said. “So I’m not gonna put any stock into the fact that we beat them twice during the regular season.”

Nonetheless, the matchup has developed into a Midwestern rivalry. The team accomplished one of its preseason goals by taking two games from the Cardinals, who had owned the Hoosiers in the recent seasons.

Louisville had won 10 of the previous 11 games prior to 2013, outscoring IU 34-8 in two wins against IU in 2012.

“We feel like we’re almost like their kid brother,” junior third baseman Dustin DeMuth said. “They beat us up pretty good last year and we kind of got back at them this year.”

The significance of beating a regional college baseball powerhouse — the
Cardinals have made the NCAA Tournament six of the last seven seasons and appeared in the College World Series in 2007 — was not lost on DeMuth, either.

“We definitely have confidence against them beating them twice and playing them down to the wire at their place,” he said. “I don’t think it’s friendly. I don’t think they like us, we probably don’t like them, but they’re a good team. We respect them and have a lot of respect for their program.”

The Hoosiers will send junior left-hander Joey DeNato (9-2, 2.76 ERA) to the mound. He struggled in his last start, lasting just three innings giving up two earned runs and walking four in IU’s 10-9 super-regional win against Florida State Saturday.

As a unit, IU’s starters have struggled with their command in five postseason games, walking 12 in 23.1 innings. Only once has a starter lasted at least six innings in that span.

Sophomore catcher Kyle Schwarber was not concerned with his starters. He said they were just going through a normal slump all pitchers experience.

“Those guys have been solid for us all throughout the year,” he said. “I’m expecting Joey to come out and be Joey. He’s just gonna come out there and pound the strike zone.”

DeNato and his teammates dealt with a hostile crowd in Tallahasee, Fla., something Schwarber said will help prepare the Hoosiers for the stage in Omaha.

“There’s not gonna be a more hostile place in college baseball,” he said.  “Playing in the super regional down at Florida State, those fans are brutal. That’s gonna help us calm ourselves down in the midst of all the people around us and the lights shining on us.”

The Hoosiers will also have to play in yet another unfamiliar venue, and will move from a more hitter-friendly ballpark to a spacious one.

While Florida State’s Dick Howser Stadium featured a short porch in right and a high wall that encourages doubles and triples, Omaha’s TD Ameritrade Park features larger dimensions — 335 feet to left and right field, and 408 to dead center — than the average ballpark.

For the Big Ten Tournament, IU played at the Minnesota Twins’ Target Field, which is even deeper in left and the left-center field gap, and the same distance to center.

Smith said other coaches who have played at TD Ameritrade Park have suggested he tell his hitters to not to hit fly balls in batting practice to adjust to the dimensions.

“That’s like telling the Pope not to pray,” he said. “We’re gonna be who we are. I’m not gonna try to change them in one week’s time.”

He said the first seven or eight hitters in his lineup have gap-to-gap power, which plays well in this particular ballpark, he said.

The Hoosiers have averaged 9.4 runs per game in the postseason, scoring in double digits in three of five games while clubbing six home runs. 

“We don’t think there’s a hole in our lineup,” DeMuth said. “You go one-through-nine and everyone can hit, everyone can bunt, can do the little things and we have a lot of confidence in our lineup. If pitching’s not there one game, we feel like we can swing our way out of it.”

The Hoosiers are the only Big Ten team to make Omaha this year, and the first since Michigan in 1984.

Smith said he received “nasty emails” from people in Tallahassee saying IU had no chance of winning.

“It makes it that much sweeter when we’re able to defy the odds,” junior outfielder Will Nolden said. “They definitely doubted us heading down to Florida State. We felt it more than ever. I think what we were able to do down there sends a message to the rest of the country.”