Sophomore Indiana righty Luke Sinnard and senior catcher Peter Serruto were the difference-makers in Sunday’s victory over the University of Texas Longhorns, and it all started in the bottom of the fifth inning.
On Sunday, during the pivotal frame, Texas shortstop Mitchell Daly singled to right field to lead off the inning. The Longhorns led 2-0 at this point, and with the leadoff runner aboard, they were poised to do more damage.
Wanting to put the game out of reach and secure the sweep, Daly attempted to swipe second. Sinnard delivered a pitch to Texas freshman Jared Thomas and Serruto came up firing, gunning down the baserunner. Just as quickly as Texas had a man on, he was sent back to the dugout. Sinnard sat down the next two batters for his sixth and seventh strikeouts of the day and Indiana flipped the script.
The same player who culled the Texas threat in the bottom of the fifth got things started for Indiana to lead off the sixth – Serruto singled on a 2-2 count to wake up the Indiana bats, which had largely been dormant throughout the series.
In that inning, Serruto became the first of four Indiana runners to score in the frame, crossing the plate on a 2-out RBI single by sophomore third baseman Josh Pyne. The Hoosiers tied the game on a Carter Mathison base knock to right-center field, the sophomore outfielder seemingly putting aside his early-season struggles. They took the lead with a 2-run double courtesy of sophomore first baseman Brock Tibbits.
From there, the bullpen arms of sophomores Cooper Hellman and Ryan Kraft shut the door, with Kraft dominating in the final three innings. He allowed just one hit, struck out two, and averaged less than four pitches per batter.
Sunday marked the second consecutive week that Indiana avoided a series sweep in the south thanks in part to five innings of solid pitching by Sinnard.
The Hoosiers looked poised to take the opener on Friday night – senior Ben Seiler shut down the Longhorns with five shutout innings to start things off, but redshirt junior Porter Brown’s three-run blast in the bottom of the eighth inning lifted Texas over Indiana 4-1.
Saturday’s 5-2 loss came down to one thing: defense. Indiana committed three errors in game two of the series. One of those errors translated into a run in the bottom of the first and another crossed the plate in a four-run fifth for the Longhorns.
The lone error in Indiana’s 4-2 Sunday win was a throwing error in the bottom of the sixth inning, committed by freshman second baseman Tyler Cerny. The beneficiary of this error was none other than Friday’s hero, Porter Brown. After Brown reached, he was caught stealing by Serruto. Texas failed to score for the rest of the game.
After Sinnard and Serruto showed out on Sunday, Indiana’s record improved to 3-4. They host Butler University at 4 p.m. on Tuesday at Bart Kaufman Field and then head to Greenville, North Carolina for the Keith LeClair Classic. Tuesday’s game will be televised on Big Ten Plus.
