A first-inning grand slam from freshman catcher Owen ten Oever powered Indiana baseball to its fourth straight midweek victory and second-consecutive win Tuesday.
Indiana scored six runs in the first inning and led wire-to-wire against Ball State University. The Cream and Crimson defeated the Cardinals 20-10 on Tuesday afternoon at Shebek Stadium in Muncie to improve their record to 19-22 overall.
The Hoosiers’ offense tallied 15 hits against Ball State. Indiana collected three home runs, with the other two coming from sophomore catcher/outfielder Hogan Denny. He and sophomore outfielder Cole Decker combined for 11 RBIs.
Sophomore outfielder Cooper Malamazian extended his hitting streak to 13-straight games with a 1-for-2 performance Tuesday. He drew four walks and scored three times in the affair.
While the Hoosiers created early separation, their offense continued to apply pressure throughout the game. They added five runs in the fourth inning and four in the eighth to keep Ball State from mounting a comeback.
Indiana’s pitching staff allowed 10 runs on 14 hits in the high-scoring contest. Five relievers combined to strike out nine Ball State hitters. Starting pitcher freshman right-hander Ivan Mastalski recorded three strikeouts in three scoreless innings.
Graduate student Kaden Jacobi and freshman right-hander Kellen English combined to allow eight earned runs and nine hits in 1.1 innings pitched.
Ten Oever slotted in as the designated hitter Tuesday, going 2 for 5 at the plate with one walk and four RBIs.
On the first pitch he saw in the game, ten Oever crushed his second home run of the year. It was a 446-foot home run over the center-field wall, clearing the bases and giving Indiana a 5-0 lead as part of a six-run inning. He also recorded a single in the fourth inning.
Heading into the year, ten Oever was expected to be the third backstop in line behind junior T.J. Schuyler and redshirt freshman Brayden Ricketts.
But with Schuyler batting only .086 through 58 at-bats this year, Indiana needed more offensively. The Hoosiers turned to ten Oever, decreasing Schuyler’s playing time. Schuyler has only played in three of the Hoosiers’ last nine contests.
Ten Oever’s first real opportunity came against Nebraska on March 28, where he delivered with his first career home run in the sixth inning, despite the Hoosiers losing 12-7. He also recorded three RBIs in the contest.
In Indiana’s three-game series against the Cornhuskers, ten Oever went 2 for 5 at the dish. From there, the Brooklyn, New York, native has seen his playing time steadily increase.
He started five straight games against Rutgers and at Maryland. However, over that span, the 6-foot-1 freshman struggled. Ten Oever recorded two hits in 16 at-bats, and his batting average dropped to .231 on the year.
The struggles continued as ten Oever tallied only four at-bats in the five contests leading up to Tuesday’s contest. But his successful outing Tuesday in Muncie, could be a stepping stone for the freshman to get back to the success he found a month ago.
Ten Oever and Indiana’s offense will look to build on its 20-run performance when it returns to Bart Kaufman Field to face Iowa on Friday night. First pitch will be at 6 p.m., with the game streaming on Big Ten+.
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.
