The half-inning prior, the Hoosiers had runners on second and third and one out with its senior catcher, Brad Hartong, at the plate. Hartong grounded a ball to the right side of the infield that looked like it might sneak through into right field and potentially tie the game.
But Indiana State second baseman Andy DeJesus ranged to his left, fielded the ball and spun to throw out Hartong. A run did score on the play, but that was all the Hoosiers could muster as sophomore outfielder Craig Dedelow flied out to center on the next pitch.
IU (21-12) lost 6-2 at Indiana State (15-19) on Tuesday, partly because of missed opportunities at the plate and partly because of the Sycamores’ propensity for the home run.
“We’ve got to do a better job,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said. “The last two midweek games we’ve lost, we match up and we should score more runs statistically, but we just haven’t.”
Another three of Indiana State’s runs also came from a home run, Jacob Hayes’ two-out, three-run homer to right field off a hanging curve ball from IU junior starting pitcher Will Coursen-Carr, who was making his first start this season.
But it was Young’s home run in the seventh that signaled the end for the Hoosiers, Lemonis said.
“It was a dagger,” Lemonis said. “We’ve fought that over the past couple weeks. We score a run, and we get it close, and then we give up two. It’s just hard to be successful that way.”
It doesn’t help when IU fails to get runners into scoring position. It also doesn’t help that when it does manage to, it squanders the opportunity.
IU managed to put a runner in scoring position in three innings. One in the first, two in the fourth and two in the seventh.
In the first, IU scored its first run when senior Scott Donley singled weakly between the third baseman and the shortstop, scoring senior Casey Rodrigue from second base.
In the third, IU loaded the bases, but freshman second baseman Colby Stratten flied out to right field to end the inning.
Overall IU had only four at bats with runners in scoring position. Its one hit was Donley’s first-inning single.
“When we get guys on, we gotta make sure those guys score,” Hartong said. “We’ve got to bring them home. That’s a big part.”
Part of this was because of the defense of Indiana State. In addition to his play on Hartong in the seventh, DeJesus was making plays all night, and Hartong said all he could do was tip his hat.
Hartong also mentioned the amount of fly balls IU sent deep into the outfield that were run down by Sycamores. He said he thought Donley hit a fly ball that would have been a home run on a different day, in a different stadium.
“I thought Indiana State played tremendous defense and just made a lot of plays today,” Lemonis said. “Their second baseman probably took away three hits, and we hit some balls hard to the outfield that just didn’t fall, so it was just one of those types of days.”
IU will have an opportunity to rebound today from its loss when it plays Evansville at 6:05 p.m. at Bart Kaufman Field.
IU will start freshman Brian Hobbie against the Purple Aces.
“That’s the good thing about baseball,” Lemonis said. “You can wake up and get the bad taste out of your mouth quick, so hopefully we’ll go out and play well tomorrow.”
