Sophomore catcher TJ Schulyer dropped a critical RBI single into right-center field to give Indiana a 7-6 lead in the top of the ninth inning in the third game of the Hoosiers’ weekend series Sunday against Abilene Christian University.
Schulyer’s hit was the main catalyst in the Hoosiers’ series sweep over the Wildcats this weekend.
Indiana’s offense came to play throughout the weekend, and a flurry of runs in all three games was the result.
In the first game of the series, the contest was close through the first half of the game before the Hoosiers’ offense got going. In the top of the sixth inning, freshman infielder Jake Hanley hit an RBI double down the left field line as Indiana opened up a 6-2 lead over Abilene Christian.
Both teams scored two more runs apiece over the next three innings as Indiana picked up an 8-4 win in the first game of the weekend set.
In the second game, Indiana had another dominant offensive performance. Freshman outfielder Hogan Denny and redshirt sophomore outfielder Korbyn Dickerson were the stars in the second game, as they each homered and combined for six hits.
Dickerson brought in four RBIs while Denny added three of his own. The two also combined for five of the Hoosiers’ 14 runs in the game.
Indiana comfortably took the second game of the weekend set 14-5 and secured a series victory with the win.
In the third game of the series, things started off dicey for the Hoosiers as they trailed 3-0 after five innings, and the offense had failed to string together anything consistent.
However, Schulyer got the Hoosiers right back in the game in the top of the sixth inning with a two-run blast to left field that cut the deficit to one run.
Dickerson then connected on an RBI double into right-center field, which brought home junior outfielder Devin Taylor to tie the game at 3.
After two runs from the Wildcats in the bottom of the sixth inning, Indiana redshirt sophomore infielder Joey Brenczewski launched a three-run home run into right field in the top of the seventh inning to give Indiana its first lead of the game.
Abilene Christian took the lead back in the bottom of the eighth inning, but Schulyer came up clutch once again in the ninth with the RBI single that proved to be the game-winner. Schulyer finished the third game of the series with a home run, the game-winning single and three RBIs.
It was a consistent weekend from Indiana’s offense. Several different players contributed significantly in the lineup.
Denny finished the weekend with two home runs, four hits and five RBIs. Dickerson added five hits and five RBIs. Taylor added four hits and four runs despite not being in the lineup for the first game of the series due to an illness.
The Hoosiers improved to 27-21 on the season with the sweep while Abilene Christian fell to 27-18 on the year.
Indiana will be back in action at 6 p.m. Friday when they begin a three-game weekend series with Purdue at Bart Kaufman Field in Bloomington. The first two games will be streamed on Big Ten+ and the series finale will be on the Big Ten Network.
