Hi all,
This is a bit of a double post, since I was away from my computer yesterday. The Hoosiers faced Stetson and Hartford in the last two days, fairing better against the latter. IU lost 11-1 to Stetson, but defeated Hartford 10-1 the next day.
Stetson
A different problem seemed to arise for the pitchers against Stetson, as they walked a total of 11 batters, which was still an improvement from Northern Iowa and Eastern Illinois games, where they allowed in excess of 18 runs per.
Joey O'Gara (0-2) took the loss after pitching seven innings that saw only six hits, but also saw five earned runs. Unfortunately, he had walked five batters, from which resulted many of the Stetson points. He was relieved by Drew Leininger who walked three batters in one inning, and needed Matt Igel to get him out of the jam -- that didn't happen. Igel pitched two innings and gave up five hits, five earned runs and walked three.
The offense also stalled a bit, totaling eight hits that they were only able to turn into one run. Jake Dunning was the best on the day for IU. He went 2-for-3 and scored the lone IU run. Stetson, however, made its hits count, and turned 11 hits into 11 points.
Hartford
After developing its second four-game losing streak of the season, IU finally added one to the win column.
The Hoosiers gained the second win of their spring trip against Hartford, based on a stellar performance from Eric Arnett (4-1) who has proved to be the most reliable of the Hoosier pitchers this season. Arnett only allowed four hits, and one earned run while striking out six -- the 15-hit, errorless play of his teammates didn't hurt, either.
Matt Carr also pitched admirably, going for two innings in which he only allowed one hit and struck out four.
Most importantly, Arnett was given the run support O'Gara lacked in the Stetson game. IU posted 10 runs on 15 hits, and just about everybody chipped in. One of the better performances came from Sterling Mack. The sophomore outfielder was 3-for-5 with three RBI. Other strong showings came from Dunning and Josh Phegley, who both scored two runs and were 3-of-4 and 2-of-4, respectively.
The spring trip has not been very kind to the Hoosiers -- hopefully Big Ten play will showcase more of the potential this team has.
