When freshman right fielder Luke Miller misplayed a soft line drive hit right at him with one out in the top of the ninth, junior Bryson Bowman found himself standing on third base with a triple to give the Catamounts a chance to tie the game.
Senior starting pitcher Kyle Hart walked the next batter on four pitches to put runners on the corners but then sniffed out a suicide squeeze attempt to get the runner from third at the plate to keep the Hoosier lead intact.
It was only right that with two strikes on the second baseman Nobu Suzuki he found a hole on the right side of the infield singling to Miller in right. As the Catamount base runner took off from second and raced around third Miller redeemed himself gunning down the winning run at the plate for IU to win its home opener 3-2.
All three Hoosier runs came from senior infielder Brian Wilhite, who in addition to a third inning sacrifice fly lined a 2-run home run over the wall in left field in the seventh inning.
After a sluggish start with just one hit through the first four innings for the Hoosiers, back-to-back hits in the fifth gave IU a one-run lead. Freshman designated hitter Scotty Bradley singled followed by a double roped down the left field line by junior first baseman Austin Cangelosi to put IU in a position to score with just one out in the inning.
Wilhite then hit a line drive to left deep enough to score Bradley from third to give IU a 1-0 lead.
Hart was dominant tossing six scoreless frames to begin the game. In the seventh, the Catamounts leadoff hitter scorched a line drive to center that was misread by junior centerfielder Craig Dedelow and went over his head for a leadoff triple.
An RBI single up the middle in the following at-bat quickly tied the game 1-1. With a sacrifice bunt advancing the runner to second and a ground out then moving him to third, Hart was sitting at two strikes with two outs looking to escape the inning. Instead, Hart decided to step off the mound and was called for a balk, for the second time in the game, scoring the runner from third and giving the Catamounts a 2-1 lead.
The deficit didn’t stay for long as Cangelosi reached base on a hit by pitch with one out in the bottom of the seventh followed by a two run home run by Wilhite that snuck over the left field fence to give IU the 3-2 lead and ultimately the victory.
The Hoosiers will play a doubleheader Saturday to avoid expected troublesome weather Sunday. The first game is slated to start at 12:05 p.m. with the second game starting 40 minutes after the conclusion of the first.
Zain Pyarali
