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Thursday, March 28
The Indiana Daily Student

sports baseball

IU baseball head coach Jeff Mercer to face former team in mid-week matchup

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After an offensive outbreak this weekend at Maryland, IU will return to Bart Kaufman Field on Wednesday winners of 10 of its last 12 games. 

Wednesday’s matchup with Wright State University will be IU Head Coach Jeff Mercer's first meeting against his alma matter and former team since he took the IU job last summer. 

Wright State, who plays Wofford College today, comes to Bloomington with an 18-8 record as of Tuesday afternoon and a reputation of being one of the most consistently successful mid-major programs in the Midwest. 

Wright State has wins over Oklahoma State University, the University of Mississippi and East Carolina University. All three teams were ranked at the time of defeat. 

Wright State is led by junior outfielder Peyton Burdick who is batting a .421 in 26 games this season. He also has five home runs and 30 runs batted in. 

Junior infielder Seth Gray and senior outfielder Zach Weatherford are both batting .310 on the season and bring significant power to the Wright State lineup. 

On the other side of things, IU is coming off a 39 run outbreak over the weekend in College Park, Maryland. Freshman outfielder Grant Richardson was named Big Ten Freshman of the Week for the second consecutive week, while senior utility player Matt Lloyd won Big Ten Player of the Week for his 11 run batted in performance this weekend. 

As of Sunday, IU leads the nation in home runs with 52. Sophomore infielder Cole Barr has 10, Lloyd has nine and junior outfielder Matt Gorski has seven. 

IU will likely look toward a pair of freshmen to pitch in this midweek game. Gabe Bierman and Alex Franklin have been more than stellar when called upon this year. Bierman has started three games this season and has a 2-0 record with a 3.32 earned run average on the year.

First pitch will be at 4:05 p.m. from Bart Kaufman Field on Wednesday. 

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