IU to take on No. 20 Kentucky

The two schools didn’t play in basketball this year, but IU rival Kentucky will come to Bloomington today to take on the Hoosiers baseball team at 4 p.m.

The Hoosiers enter the week as the No. 16 team in the country, while the Wildcats are slotted at No. 20.

This past weekend, IU took 2-of-3 in a series against Jacksonville. Senior pitcher Joey DeNato took his first loss of the year in game one, as IU fell 4-3.

The Hoosiers offense came to life in the last two games when they totaled 16 runs en route to victories.

“Hopefully, we’ll get a little more consistency (with the offense),” IU Coach Tracy Smith said. “I’m hoping that we’ll see more improvements there.”

IU (7-6) has its first winning record of the season and will have to calm the Kentucky offense, which scored 58 runs in just three games against Ball State during the weekend.

The Wildcats are 13-3 on the season and have a win over now-No. 3 Virginia.

“They’re an SEC team, they’re always solid,” junior first baseman Sam Travis said. “They’re going to play to win and bring their A game. We just have to go in ready to play, treat it like another game, come in with a lot of energy and keep the bats going.”
Kentucky is led by Indiana native A.J. Reed, a junior who has eight home runs and 28 RBIs to go along with a .436 batting average this season.

He is helped by junior Austin Cousino who is batting .443 with one home-run and 10 RBIs. Kentucky has six starters batting .343 or above.

“They’ve always been good,” Smith said. “We’ve struggled to get the win against them. It’s certainly going to be a challenge and we look forward to the challenge.

“If we have good approaches and throw strikes, we’ll have a chance to win the game.”

It will be junior left-hander Kyle Hart on the mound for IU.

He is 1-1 with a 3.38 ERA this year, and he got the win in IU’s home opener against Xavier last week.

He also pitched the ninth inning in the last game against Jacksonville for the second time this season.

“I don’t care if I throw mop-up innings, I don’t care if I’m throwing Friday, Saturday, Sunday or midweeks,” Hart said. “I’m happy to do anything to get more wins on the board for us.”

Hart said he prepares as if the Hoosiers aren’t going to score each game, and he has to go out and give up no runs.

“That’s kind of how you want to go about it,” Hart said.

“If we score 10 runs, that’s great, and if you score one, that should be fine, too.”

He will be opposed by left-hander Dylan Dwyer, who is 1-0 with a 3.00 ERA. The sophomore threw a complete game shutout against Cincinnati earlier this year.

IU is led by junior catcher Kyle Schwarber, who is batting .333 with two home-runs and seven RBIs.

Junior second baseman Casey Rodrigue is batting .321 with four RBIs, and Travis is batting .320 with 11 RBIs.

“We have to be ready to play,” Smith said.