A shaky opening weekend for Indiana baseball in mid-February at then-No. 11 University of North Carolina at Chapel-Hill demonstrated miscues in the field and poor pitching. Indiana sophomore infielder Cooper Malamazian struggled mightily in that series.
But now, Malamazian is already proving why he’s considered the anchor of the infield for the Hoosiers.
And with his recent surge at the plate, the Cream and Crimson were able to split the four-game series against Western Kentucky University from Feb. 27 to March 1 in Bowling Green, Kentucky.
Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer labeled Malamazian as one of the “leaders” in the clubhouse coming into the year — along with sophomore infielder Jake Hanley — at Indiana baseball’s media day on Jan 28.
After outfielders Devin Taylor and Korbyn Dickerson, who were named to the All-Big Ten First Team in 2025, were both taken in the first five rounds of the 2025 MLB Draft, Indiana needed Malamazian to be at his best.
But in his first three games of the year, the sophomore struggled both in the field and at the plate.
Malamazian went 2-for-10 at the plate against North Carolina’s pitching. And after only committing eight errors in his freshman year last season, the Clarendon Hills, Illinois, native made three miscues in the first two games of Indiana’s opening series.
However, to some extent, the struggles at the beginning of the year seemed normal for the underclassmen.
“They’ll [Cooper and Jake] have to adjust,” Mercer said on Jan. 28. “Pitchers have more scouting reports on them than last year. But they’re both great kids, I’m sure they’ll figure it out as the season continues.”
And as Mercer predicted, the 6-foot-2 shortstop immediately bounced back in Indiana’s next game with a two RBI performance against Bradley University on Feb. 17. He committed another error in the field but went 3-for-4 at the plate in the Hoosiers’ 15-3 win.
In the past eight games since Indiana’s home opener win against Bradley, Malamazian is batting .323 (10-for-31) from the plate. He’s only committed one error — which came against the University of Notre Dame on Feb. 22.
But this weekend, Malamazian struggled at the plate through the first three games of the Western Kentucky series.
He had only two hits in 12 at bats but tallied a perfect fielding percentage on 13 chances. Indiana lost 4-1 on Friday but bounced back with a 3-1win in the first game of a doubleheader Saturday before falling by a final score of 14-12 in the second game.
Despite the the Hoosiers’ 4-7 record heading into the contest on Sunday and Malamazian’s struggles at the plate through the first three games of the series, he bounced back again.
The shortstop hit 2-for-4 with a walk in five at-bats and posted a perfect fielding percentage in a 7-3 win on Sunday afternoon.
Ultimately, with his performance at the plate Sunday, Malamazian increased his batting average to .333 on the season. He also leads the team with 12 RBIs.
Indiana needs its shortstop to continue to flourish moving forward to be successful. And in the past nine games, Malamazian has found his groove.
The Hoosiers next game is versus Northern Kentucky University on Tuesday, another non-conference opponent. First pitch will be at 5 p.m. at Bart Kaufman Stadium in Bloomington.
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.
