Hey all,
I just got off the phone with coach and if you want to know everything he said about the eighth, just scroll down till you see bold typeface. For those who don't mind my prose, I wanted to wrap-up the game before getting into the extracurricular.
The wrap
IU won tonight's game against Fresno State 11-1 in what was really the first time this year pitching and hitting came together.
Freshman lefty Kyle Leiendecker started for the Hoosiers and turned in 5.2 innings of shutout baseball. In those innings, Leiendecker was dangerously close to Yahtzee as he allowed only three hits on three walks with three strikeouts as he earned his third win of the season. He is now 3-0 and leads the Big Ten.
Senior Chris McCombs came on in relief for Leiendecker in the sixth with two Fresno State Bulldogs on base and IU only up by two runs. McCombs was able to finish the inning without incident and would eventually pick up a save for his effort.
IU blew the game open in the seventh with six runs coming on four hits and one error.
The next inning saw the Hoosiers up 8-0 with one out and men on the corners as sophomore catcher Josh Phegley stepped in. As reported earlier, Phegley was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
The next batter, redshirt freshman Kipp Schutts flied out to left field which brought up sophomore infielder Michael Earley.
Earley drove in two on a single to left, and a third scored on an error by the left fielder.
The Bulldogs would tally a run in their half of the inning to give the contest its final score.
The "philosophical disagreement"
IU coach Tracy Smith was kind enough to talk with me after the game, and instead of giving you only a few things of what he said about the eighth inning, I have decided to transcribe him verbatim. Enjoy:
We were up in the eighth inning and we are up eight. We are still playing -- I mean, in college baseball, eight runs with two innings to play is not a lead where you shut it down.
And I understand the ethics of baseball, I understand that very, very well, but in our mind we are still playing, but I guess philosophically, they come from a different mindset. The next pitch, after we stole and (sophomore infielder Evan) Crawford actually got a base hit on it, they hit one of our better players, Josh Phegley. And clearly, I heard them say it from the dugout, so it was definitely intentional.
And so, to me, it was kind of just a philosophical disagreement. Their coach disagreed with us running; I disagreed with them throwing at a player. And I have always had an issue with that -- when you start throwing at kids, you are putting kids' careers in jeopardy, and to me there is no place for that.
If it's 15-0, okay, I understand where you are coming from, but with two innings to play an eight run lead in college baseball is not big.
We played them on Sunday and they were up big and still stealing late and we didn't take offense to it. I understand that's baseball.
It's not something we are proud of and I wish it wouldn't have happened.
After the benches cleared and order was restored, the umpires ejected every player who wasn't on the field, and the nine players for each team finished out the contest.
According to Smith, after the game IU went to shake hands with the Fresno State players, but the Bulldogs just walked off of the field.
Possible re-match *correction from last night's post*
The two teams are not scheduled to play each other the rest of this season, but there is an outside possibility as the Pepsi/Johnny Quik Invitational winds to an end. I originally had the Hoosiers at 1-2 in the tournament, but as those who have been checking the blog daily know, the Hoosiers have now won two in a row and, therefore, have to have more than one win. IU is 2-1 and tied for first. After double checking with Fresno State's update of the tournament, I believe Fresno is 1-2 along with two other teams.
The Hoosiers will face Utah, who is one of the teams who are 2-1 in the tournament, tomorrow at 5 p.m.
I'm sorry for the length of the post, but I hope it was insightful.
