IU baseball begins season

In 120 days, the eight best college baseball teams in United States will compete in Omaha, Neb., for the right to call themselves national champions.

The IU baseball team was among those eight teams last season, and will be doing everything in its power to return to Omaha come June.

The No. 3 Hoosiers will play 52 regular season games, plus additional contests in the Big Ten Tournament, and potentially the NCAA Regionals and NCAA Super-Regionals.
The journey to Omaha begins Friday when IU travels to Lubbock, Texas, to face off against the Texas Tech Red Raiders at 3 p.m.

The road trip is a four-game series that begins 3 p.m. Friday, continues with a doubleheader with games at 1 p.m. and 5 p.m. on Saturday, and finishes Sunday.
Coming so close to a national title last year helped IU Coach Tracy Smith and his team realize what it takes to win it all.

“It’s tough to talk about a national championship, it’s tough to talk about Omaha if you haven’t been there,” Smith said. “This group from the end of last year, they said we have some unfinished business to do. And that’s their goal at this point.”

The preseason expectations are unprecedented for IU and for the Big Ten conference. Before last season, the Hoosiers had never been ranked in the polls. They finished the year ranked No. 7 by Baseball America and were slotted No. 3 in the magazine’s preseason poll.

The last Big Ten team to be ranked this high was the 1988 Michigan Wolverines, 26 years ago.

One thing is clear for this IU team: it’s a national title or bust.

Smith recalled reading what junior first basemen Sam Travis had written down for his season goals. Smith asked his players to reflect on several different topics. Travis’ answers were simple.

“Team goals:” Win National Championship
“Individual goals:” Win National Championship
“Describe the Culture we want at IU baseball:” Carry ourselves as a National Championship caliber team.
“What are some potential distractions, and how do we eliminate these distractions?” No distractions.

When IU suits up for the first time this season, senior Joey DeNato will throw the first pitch for the Hoosiers. The California native was the ace last year for IU and had a 10-2 record with a 2.52 ERA.

DeNato is third in IU history for career wins with 24. He needs just seven more to be the sole owner of the record.

Pitching on Saturday for IU will be junior Kyle Hart and then sophomore Christian Morris. Hart was the second starter for IU last year, too, and finished the year 8-2 with a 3.01 ERA.

Morris saw limited action, going 1-1 with a 4.68 ERA. The Sunday starter has yet to be announced.

Last season, Texas Tech went 26-30 and 9-15 in the Big 12. The Red Raiders finished eighth out of nine Big 12 teams.

Smith jested with reporters on why the IU baseball program chose to open up their season in Lubbock.

“I guess everybody likes to say that’s Bob Knight country, isn’t it?” Smith said while smiling. “Actually I didn’t think about that until just now. But that didn’t go into our decision, I’m joking.”

Follow reporter Evan Hoopfer on Twitter @EvanHoopfer