Thomas Belcher wasn’t coming out of the game.
The junior relief pitcher was walking off the field as he looked to the bench pointing at his chest after a scoreless eighth inning. IU Coach Chris Lemonis couldn’t take him out of the game.
So Belcher went back out for the ninth and closed out a 3-2 win against Purdue on Saturday at Bart Kaufman Field.
“I was feeling it — my stuff was on and I love beating Purdue,” Belcher said. “I wasn’t going to pass that up.”
Belcher’s third save of the year came after 2.1 scoreless innings pitched out of the bullpen with two strikeouts. He was the third and final pitcher for the Hoosiers on Saturday, after senior starting pitcher Caleb Baragar and freshman relief pitcher BJ Sabol.
Baragar went 5.1 innings Saturday and allowed one earned run on two hits while striking out seven. But after retiring the first 12 batters of the game, the left-hander ran into trouble in the sixth inning.
After a walk and an error put runners at first and second with one out, Purdue’s Kyle Johnson tied the game with a two-RBI double to left center field. Johnson also had an RBI triple in Friday’s game.
After Baragar walked the next batter, his day was done. That’s when Sabol came in. After hitting the first batter and pitching eight to the second batter, Sabol induced a fly ball to left field not deep enough to allow the runner on third base to tag up and score the go-ahead run.
And after Sabol caught the final batter of the top of the sixth looking at a backdoor breaking ball to end the inning, the Hoosiers were able to retake the lead in the bottom of the sixth.
Sophomore outfielder Logan Sowers led off the inning being hit by a pitch. After a sacrifice bunt and a groundout to second, Sowers found himself standing on third base with two outs and freshman third baseman Luke Miller at the plate.
With two strikes on him, Miller was thrown a fastball that caught too much of the plate. Rather than try and drive the ball over the fence, Miller said he simply made solid contact and sent the ball back up the middle.
It snuck past Purdue pitcher Shane Bryant and between the shortstop and second baseman for the eventual game-winning hit.
“Right now everything’s just going right,” Miller said. “We’re getting base hits, we’re putting things together, and pitching is doing a great job. It’s going good right now.”
The win put the Hoosiers above .500 in conference play for the first time this season and is the second time they have won back-to-back weekend games.
Tomorrow, IU will have a chance to sweep its first series of the year when senior pitcher Evan Bell starts against a Purdue pitcher yet to be announced, as it has retooled its starting rotation this weekend.
Saturday was also the first time the Hoosiers have won the second game of a series.
“I didn’t know that but it’s pretty huge,” Lemonis said. “Feels good to win two in a row on the weekend and have a chance to win the weekend. They have a great arm throwing tomorrow, but Evan will be up for it.”
