CINCINNATI — IU Coach Chris Lemonis had one message for his team Wednesday before they ran out onto Hayden Field.
In the midst of a crucial stretch of games, Lemonis stressed the importance of a midweek game against a Xavier team that has struggled this year.
The Hoosiers responded, defeating the Musketeers 8-0 before they head to Michigan State to play the first-place Spartans this weekend.
“Coach Lemonis said before the game we’ve been having really great midweek games and they’ve led us to good weekends,” senior shortstop Brian Wilhite said. “The ability to come out and play against good opponents, especially away, has been really impressive and helped us get into good weekends.”
Wilhite led the way offensively for IU despite only recording one hit in the win. It helped that the hit was a towering grand slam to left field to give the Hoosiers a 5-0 lead in the fourth inning.
The grand slam was Wilhite’s third this season and his sixth home run so far this year.
“I don’t know if I’ve ever had a guy hit that many in his whole career,” Lemonis said. “He’s hit that many in a month.”
The slam lessened the load for junior starting pitcher Luke Stephenson, who picked up his first win of the season after throwing four shutout innings and allowing only three hits.
At the time of Wilhite’s big hit, Stephenson was locked in a scoreless pitchers duel after three innings. By the time he went back to the mound for his fourth inning he had a five-run cushion to work with.
“It’s awesome,” Stephenson said. “It kind of takes the pressure off for a pitcher, but most importantly, I just liked to see him get a good hit in there because he’s a good hitter and a good teammate.”
The Hoosiers were also helped offensively by two RBIs from junior first baseman Austin Cangelosi, who went 2-for-2 and also scored two runs Wednesday. IU’s other two runs came off passed balls from a wild Xavier pitching staff that also hit three IU batters.
Wednesday also saw sophomore outfielder Laren Eustace return to the field for the first time since he tweaked his hamstring April 10 against Purdue.
Eustace didn’t reach base in his only appearance at the plate, but he made a running catch in left center field that ended with the speedy outfielder colliding with the wall. Eustace showed no ill-effects of the hamstring injury, which has been a recurring problem.
Shortly after the catch, once the Hoosiers had officially put away the Musketeers, Lemonis had another message for his team.
Despite having its eight-game win streak ended at home in extra innings against Iowa on Sunday, IU is still rolling heading into the most crucial part of its schedule.
“Just like I told them, we’re playing really good baseball right now,” Lemonis said. “The professional approach in all phases of the game — we just came and took care of business which we’ve been doing for a couple weeks now.”
