INDIANAPOLIS — He couldn’t quite put into words how he was feeling.
Junior outfielder Craig Dedelow had just watched his teammates leave nine runners on base, including five in scoring positon.
Then, while he was standing on Victory Field after a 5-0 loss to Notre Dame, he was asked to put into words his feelings about the frustrations of leaving that many runners on base.
“That’s just baseball,” Dedelow said. “That’s why you play the game. I don’t really know.”
That last part was said as his voice trailed off and he shrugged his shoulders, indicating he really couldn’t explain what it felt like.
Dedelow went 3-for-4 himself, with the one out being a line drive that happened to be hit directly at Notre Dame’s first baseman.
But he accounted for half of the Hoosiers’ hits, and unfortunately for his teammates, none of those came with anyone on base.
Three times in the first three innings, IU left a runner standing on second base to end the inning.
The first inning saw junior first baseman Austin Cangelosi pop out to the pitchers mound to leave runners on first and second.
In the second inning, junior second baseman Tony Butler fouled out to third to leave a runner standing on second base.
Then it was Cangelosi again in the third inning, when he struck out to leave runners on first and second.
By the time the Hoosiers advanced another runner into scoring position, the Fighting Irish already led by five runs.
“We had a couple guys who really had an opportunity to get that game going for us,” IU Coach Chris Lemonis said. “We’re not getting an average at-bat. We’re getting a really bad at-bat in those situations. I think we had five pop ups to the infield or foul territory.”
The Hoosiers ended the game batting 2-for-15 with runners on base and 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position.
In the middle of a team-wide scoring slump last season, Lemonis started tracking what he calls quality at-bats. If a batter has a productive at-bat that helps the general cause of the Hoosiers, Lemonis and his coaches count it as productive.
He said he didn’t spend much time charting quality at-bats Tuesday night.
The Hoosiers weren’t being patient at the plate, Lemonis said. Once a runner got into scoring position, they were swinging at the first decent pitch they saw instead of continuing to work the count and wait for the best pitch to hit.
Dedelow echoed this sentiment. As the Hoosier deficit decreased, so did the desperation.
When Notre Deme went up five runs, IU hitters started trying to win the game by themselves, which is the main thing Dedelow said needs to change before Wednesday night’s game against Xavier.
“It’s just more of a team approach instead of trying to take it on yourself to try and hit a five-run home run with nobody on,” Dedelow said. “Just more of a team approach at the plate.”
