Indiana baseball outlasted Ball State University in a Tuesday night tilt that saw both sides combine for 29 runs. Now sitting at 23-10 on the season, the Hoosiers defeated the Cardinals 16-13 thanks in large part to sophomore first baseman Brock Tibbitts. The corner-infielder went 3-for-3 at the dish, saw 11 pitches in two separate at-bats and clobbered a pair of monster home runs.
Despite his mammoth 5-RBI performance, Tibbitts said after the game that he was only trying to stay within his approach at the plate.
“I was a little bit off fastball timing this weekend,” Tibbitts said on Tuesday.
He went hitless in the series versus Iowa on April 7-9, only reaching base via three walks spread across the weekend set.
“I was missing a few balls that I should’ve been hitting,” Tibbitts said. “I just got back to work and back to that approach. I was able to carry that into the game.”
Prior to his 0-9 showing last weekend, Tibbitts went 2-4 in a shutout loss at Indiana State on April 4. A pair of warning track catches brought back would-be Tibbitts homers in that game.
“It definitely felt good for it to actually go over the fence instead of getting robbed this time,” Tibbitts said. “It happens. Sometimes they carry, sometimes they don’t. Sometimes you hit them well, sometimes you don’t. You've just got to let baseball happen.”
The Hoosiers fell behind 4-0 in the first inning and then 8-3 after two. Ball State’s early scoring was headlined by a grand slam from junior Decker Scheffler in the first inning and senior Zach Lane’s two-run blast in the second.
“They can really hit,” head coach Jeff Mercer said after the game. “There’s a reason why they’re first in the MAC and now I see it with my own two eyes.”
The Hoosiers responded to Ball State’s four-spot with three runs in the bottom half of the inning before the Cardinals opened things up in the second with five runs. After Indiana went down 8-3, both sides traded scoreless half-innings in the third.
Senior lefty Nathan Ball stranded two Ball State baserunners in the top of the fourth, and then Indiana put up eight runs in the bottom half of the inning.
“Our offense can click at any moment,” Tibbitts said. “It happened to be the whole game today.”
Comebacks have become a lifestyle for Indiana. Mercer said he tells the Hoosiers to keep going when they fall behind. The situation has occurred so many times that the players remain level-headed.
“I’m sure they’re probably thinking, ‘Yeah, no kidding, dude. We’ve done this 30 times now,’” he said.
Mercer said that focusing on the rest of the ballgame and trusting their bats was key to Indiana’s come-from-behind victory. “You have to play with all 27 outs,” Mercer said. “Keep moving and trust your offense.”
“If we could slow them down a bit offensively, we would gradually chip away and make it a ballgame,” Mercer said.
Indiana batted around in the fourth inning, sending 11 men to the plate. It began with Tibbitts working an 11-pitch leadoff walk that included six foul balls. Tibbitts’ second plate appearance of the inning resulted in the first of his two home runs on a 2-0 pitch.
Tibbitts is part of a young Indiana core that is approaching 100 career games played. Mercer said that despite their youth, the sophomores on Indiana’s roster are starting to resemble upperclassmen like redshirt junior Bobby Whalen and fifth-year senior Phillip Glasser.
"They’re very level-headed,” Mercer said. “They don’t panic. They don’t knee-jerk. They just come to the dugout, grab their bat, go up and have a good at-bat. That’s the only thing you can do. The only thing you can control is your attitude.”
Winning back-and-forth battles like the game on Tuesday is just as much a mental task as it is physical. After Indiana took an 11-8 lead in the fourth inning, Ball State tied it on a three-run blast from Adam Tellier, the senior’s first hit of the game.
More of the same was all that happened for Indiana.
“Right back to work,” he said.
A pair of scoreless half-innings later, Indiana took the lead for good on Tibbitts’ second home run of the day. This at-bat was also 11 pitches long and five of Tibbitts’ seven foul balls were fought off with two strikes in the count.
“He’s just going to work until he gets a mistake (pitch),” Mercer said of Tibbitts. “He’s really talented when he does. He hammered them.”
The Hoosiers are now in the top 20 of D1Baseball’s RPI rankings, the lone Big Ten team in the group. Mercer said this makes Indiana a target for every opponent moving forward. Every opponent will give their best effort against Indiana and this means the Hoosiers have to be on their toes.
“You have to be prepared to play the game every single day," Mercer said.
Currently 7-2 in conference play, Indiana heads west for a weekend set versus Illinois. The Fighting Illini are 14-15 overall and 3-6 in Big Ten play. They are 2-4 at home and the Hoosiers are just 4-8 away from Bart Kaufman Field. Tibbitts said that to inch closer to .500 on the road, Indiana needs to keep their daily routine consistent despite the change of scenery.
Indiana’s high RPI ranking does not change anything in the clubhouse.
“We’re just taking it game-by-game,” Tibbitts said. “Just looking to win every weekend and keep going with Big Ten play.”
Indiana’s three-game set at Illinois begins at 8 p.m. on Friday, followed by a 4 p.m. start on Saturday and a 2 p.m. series finale on Sunday. Friday’s game will be televised on Big Ten Network and the final two games of the series will be available on B1G+.
