Korte gets midweek start

Last year, IU’s midweek starter was a constant staple for the team. That hasn’t been the case this year.

Will Coursen-Carr, a freshman last year, excelled as the midweek starter in 2013. He was 5-0 with a 1.93 ERA. This year, Coursen-Carr was moved into the weekend rotation but has struggled. Several pitchers have thrown the midweek game, with none securing the job for himself.

Brian Korte, Sullivan Stadler and Kyle Hart have all thrown midweek games. Hart excelled and was promoted to the weekend rotation.

Korte will get his start when Western Kentucky (19-17, 7-8) comes to Bloomington to face IU (21-11, 8-1).

IU had its nine-game winning streak snapped last Sunday against Morehead State. Despite a grand slam by designated hitter Scott Donley in the bottom of the ninth inning, the Hoosiers fell 8-7 to the Eagles.

Senior Brian Korte will start tonight against the Hilltoppers. Korte earned the start in the Hoosiers’ last midweek game against Indiana State. The senior went three innings and gave up no earned runs. Freshman Thomas Belcher came in and threw four innings of relief, giving up two earned runs.

The issue of starting pitching depth has become a real issue for IU since the injury of junior starter Kyle Hart. Hart — who underwent Tommy John surgery yesterday and is out for the season — has been out since March 30. The injury has bumped pitching up in the rotation, and IU Coach Tracy Smith wants one of his pitchers to step up. With Korte, he specifically wants him to be more aggressive in the strike zone.

“With multiple pitches,” Smith added. “I think as a starter, you have to do that. You can’t go hard, hard, hard all the time. You have to drop some off-speed stuff in there.”

Smith doesn’t have a specific number of innings he wants Korte to throw. It will be a fluid situation, and Smith will make a decision during the game how long he wants to keep Korte in the game.

“If we can jump out and get a few runs, yeah it’d be nice to save him for the weekend,” Smith said.

The run support for IU starting pitchers has been prolific as of late. The Hoosiers have scored five or more runs in their last 11 games and haven’t scored less than 3 runs in more than a month.

Junior Casey Rodrigue has cemented himself as the leadoff hitter on the team. Rodrigue, hitting .311 this year, said he knows his role is to get on base for Kyle Schwarber and Sam Travis, who hit immediately behind him.

“The big bats showed this weekend and during the win streak,” Rodrigue said. “A lot of people are doing great.”