It was the culmination of a frustrating weekend.
Senior outfielder Will Nolden had just taken a fastball on the outside corner for strike three and was bent over at the waist with his hands and bat on his knees. He would eventually rise and walk slowly back to the dugout, muttering to himself under his breath as he sulked.
Three batters later, sophomore Craig Dedelow swung at a ball in the dirt to finalize IU’s 4-3 loss Sunday against Michigan. Michigan (18-13, 4-5) won two out of three games this weekend against IU (18-10, 2-6), who lost a series for the first time at Bart Kaufman Stadium since its construction in 2013.
IU lost the first game of a doubleheader on Saturday against the Wolverines 7-3 before taking the nightcap 13-11.
“We just couldn’t get the last hit,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said Sunday. “We’d get some guys out there and the strikeout killed us.”
IU struck out 11 times Sunday, three of them with a runner in scoring position.
It wasn’t as if IU didn’t see good pitches to hit. In the bottom of the third, freshman outfielder Logan Sowers was at the plate with runners on first and second and two outs. He worked the count to two balls and one strike, meaning Michigan starting pitcher Brett Adcock was likely to throw a fastball.
He threw a fastball over the middle of the plate, but Sowers could only foul it back to the backstop. The next pitch, Sowers watched a fastball cruise by on the inner half of the strike zone for strike three to end the inning.
Lemonis said he felt like his guys were a hair off at the plate the entire game.
“He was hiding the ball well and he had kind of a hop in his motion that throws off the hitter a little bit,” Dedelow said.
IU saw Adcock’s hop a lot — 106 times. But for the most part, IU was off-kilter the entire game. Then, in the seventh inning, Carmen Benedetti replaced Adcock.
IU managed a run against the new pitcher, but only after Michigan second baseman Eric Jacobson let a ball get by him into the outfield. IU forced Benedetti to throw 26 pitches in the seventh inning, working the count full three times, but could only manage the one run.
Frustration grew for everyone Sunday in Bart Kaufman Stadium. After seemingly any call that didn’t go the Hoosiers’ way, fans would rise from their seats and start barking at the umpire.
If a questionable strike was called against an IU batter, he would turn back in disgust or take a few steps away from the plate to calm down.
After one such occasion in the seventh inning, IU Pitching Coach Kyle Bunn said one word too many and was thrown out of the game.
Dedelow let his frustrations show in the fifth inning. He took a fastball inside that was called for strike one and immediately turned and said something to the umpire while shaking his head. The next pitch he swung at a changeup in the dirt and slammed his bat against his foot.
“Being the center fielder, I could see where their strike zone was and then being at the plate, I could see what he was calling against me and there was a little inconsistency,” Dedelow said.
What might be most frustrating for the Hoosiers is they can’t point to one thing that went wrong this weekend. In its first loss IU’s pitchers struggled as they gave up seven runs, with five in the second inning.
The pitching struggles continued in the second game when the staff surrendered 11 runs, with nine in the eighth inning. But IU was saved by its offense, which scored 13 runs.
But Sunday, the IU offense couldn’t correct a slow start from junior starting pitcher Scott Effross. After Benedetti’s two-run home run in the third inning made the score 3-0, IU’s bats couldn’t respond like they have in the past.
“I don’t think we can put our finger on one area but maybe we’re just pressing a little bit,” Lemonis said.
Whatever needs correcting needs to be corrected soon, as IU sits in 10th place in the Big Ten, which would leave them out of the Big Ten Tournament if the season ended today. Lemonis said if this team gets back to playing their best, there shouldn’t be a problem.
But first IU needs to get back to playing its best.
“I think we’ve played some good teams and we haven’t played our best,” Lemonis said. “When you play good teams you have to play good.”
