Indiana baseball kicked off its season in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, under bright, sunny skies Friday afternoon.
The Hoosiers were looking for their first opening day win since current Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer took over in 2019.
However, the Hoosiers fell 9-4 to the No. 11 North Carolina Tar Heels, despite an impressive debut from University of Missouri transfer graduate left-handed pitcher Tony Neubeck.
The 6-foot-2 southpaw threw four scoreless innings, only allowing one hit and striking out two batters. He threw 62 total pitches and 34 strikes while facing 14 Tar Heel batters.
Although Neubeck also walked three batters, the score was tied 0-0 when he ultimately turned the ball over to Indiana’s bullpen.
Redshirt junior outfielder Ayden Crouse held the only two hits by the Hoosiers’ offense through the first five innings. Both Chandler-Gilbert Community College, JUCO, transfers hits were singles into the outfield.
Graduate right-handed pitcher Reagan Rivera took the ball from Neubeck. But Rivera struggled mightily in his season debut. The San Diego native allowed three runs in the bottom of the fifth. His outing fell apart the following inning as North Carolina exploded for six runs to go up 9-2.
Indiana loaded the bases with two outs in the top of the sixth inning. The Cream and Crimson broke through on a two-run single that hit the second-base bag and kicked into the outfield by sophomore outfielder Cole Decker. The two-run single was Decker’s first career hit.
But errors buried the Hoosiers in the bottom half of the sixth inning.
Sophomore shortstop Cooper Malamazian, who fielded at a .945 clip last year, let the ball get under his glove to get the sixth inning started. Then as the Tar Heels led 4-2 with baserunners on second and third, Decker misjudged a fly-ball and let it drop in front of him, resulting in two more runs for the home team.
North Carolina blew the game open on a triple into left-center field by junior infielder Jake Schaffner. Indiana’s centerfielder Crouse misplayed the sinking line-drive hit, diving short of the ball and letting it get past him.
This was Rivera’s last batter before getting pulled. His outing ended with him only going 1.1 innings pitched. He allowed six hits and nine runs but only three earned runs due to the two errors the Hoosiers committed.
Indiana’s offense put up two more runs in the 9th inning. Sophomore first basemen Jake Hanley hit a two-run double into right-center field. The Hoosiers ended up with only five hits, two of them coming from Crouse, compared to North Carolina’s eight.
Indiana now sits at 0-1. The Hoosiers’ will finish out their opening series with the Tar Heels on Saturday with the first game being played at noon.
Follow reporters Elakai Anela (@elakai_anela and eanela@iu.edu) and Will Kwiatkowski (@WKwiatkowski_15 and wdkwiatk@iu.edu) for updates throughout the Indiana baseball season.
