IU baseball defeated all three opponents in the South Alabama Invitational this weekend in Mobile, Alabama, bringing its record to 4-2.
The team won against the University of Tennessee at Martin 3-2 on Friday, No. 30 University of South Alabama 4-2 on Saturday and Siena College 12-3 on Sunday.
IU’s pitching staff played a large role in the team’s success this weekend. Sophomore Alex Franklin was the only pitcher who allowed any earned runs. He gave away two after walking two players in the eighth inning against Siena.
Sophomore pitcher Gabe Bierman started Saturday and pitched more than six innings in which he allowed six hits. He struck out 11 players, hindering the South Alabama batters.
Bierman pitched the longest and had the most strikeouts, but all the starting pitchers kept hits low. Junior pitcher Tommy Sommer started Friday and allowed four hits in five innings. Sophomore pitcher Braydon Tucker started Sunday and allowed three hits in five innings.
The relief pitchers also kept hits to a minimum. The bullpen only allowed six hits throughout all three games.
The Hoosiers continued to struggle with errors this weekend, totaling five over three games. All the runs scored against them in the first two games were unearned. They also had an unearned run in their third game of the tournament.
IU hit a home run every game this weekend. Junior infielder Cole Barr and sophomore outfielder Grant Richardson both hit solo home runs, Barr on Friday and Richardson on Saturday.
Junior outfielder Elijah Dunham hit a three-run home run Sunday. He led the team in batting this weekend, hitting 7-11 and bringing his average up to .476 for the season. He went 3-4 Friday and 3-3 Saturday.
The Hoosiers had 11 hits Friday but couldn’t turn them all into runs. They stranded 12 players on base in their game against UT Martin.
The team had six hits against Siena but scored 12 runs, marking its highest run total of the invitational while collecting its fewest number of hits. During the game, Siena had four errors, hit three batters with a pitch and walked 14 players.
IU now moves on to play Butler University for its first home game of the season Wednesday at 3:05 p.m.
