The last time senior pitcher Kyle Hart took the mound for the Hoosiers, he tossed a gem.
He pitched seven innings while punching out six batters and allowing one unearned run on five hits against Radford in the NCAA regional in his best performance of the season.
Hart’s final outing was the key in letting IU Coach Chris Lemonis know his ace had returned after going on the disabled list in the middle of the 2014 campaign to undergo Tommy John surgery.
On Monday, Lemonis announced that Hart would be the Hoosiers’ Friday night starter for the upcoming season.
“Kyle’s that Friday-night type of starter, and we really took off last year when he got all the way back and healthy,” Lemonis said. “He’s been really good in our scrimmages against our guys.”
In his limited time on the mound last season, Hart was able to post the lowest ERA for the Hoosiers at 1.21 in just 37 innings pitched.
Aware of the pitcher’s recovery process post-surgery, Lemonis didn’t push Hart when he saw the field once again and was able to toss just 9.1 innings from mid-March to late April.
After his first start of the season against Michigan State, in which Hart lasted just 2.2 innings, he rattled off five consecutive starts of at least five innings to finish the season with a record of 5-0.
“It’s tough because you feel like you’ve contributed, but you really didn’t contribute as much as you could’ve had you been healthy,” Hart said. “Like I always said, had I taken care of my body more, been in the training room more and done more in the weight room.”
During Hart’s freshman and sophomore seasons, he started all 30 games he pitched and posted back-to-back years of more than 80 innings.
He saw his record improve from .500 in his freshman season to 8-2 his sophomore year. His ERA also dropped 20 points from 3.21 to 3.01, and held opposing hitters to a .262 batting average.
Hart was on track to have career-low numbers in every category during his junior season with a 2.29 ERA in his first nine appearances before the call for surgery came just 35 innings into the season.
“Obviously it’s been tough for me — kind of split my last two seasons in half,” Hart said. “Going out for this team and completing a full season, whether that’s 80 or 100 innings. Just eating innings and competing in a positive way that allows us to win in any game I’m pitching in.”
Lemonis said, in addition to Hart being the Friday night starter for IU, seniors Evan Bell and Caleb Baragar would round out the three-man starting rotation to give the Hoosiers a lot of depth in the back half of games.
“Baseball is about starting pitching and pitching all together,” Lemonis said. “We have great starting pitching, bullpen depth and experience. The hardest part is getting enough innings for everybody, so it’s a luxury that we’re going to enjoy this year.”
