Today, IU baseball coach Tracy Smith announced two right-handed pitchers will join the team. Matt Ernest, a 6-foot-2 red-shirt sophomore, and Casey Smith, a 6-foot-1 local product out of Bloomington North, will look to help strengthen a pitching staff that only had seven healthy pitchers this fall and lost its' top two starters to the draft last June.
You may remember Ernest from the football field this fall, where he played wide receiver, hauling in seven catches for 69 yards, including a touchdown against Ohio State. He will participate in spring practices for the football team as well as pitch for the baseball team. Recruited out of Crown Point HS (Ind.) in 2007 by Coach Smith, Ernest opted to go the football route for his first two seasons. He recently approached Smith about playing this spring and was threw into the 90s in a private try-out. Ernest was a standout in both baseball and basketball in addition to his football accomplishments at Crown Point.
Freshman Casey Smith, Tracy's son, graduated from Bloomington North early to attend IU. He went 8-2 with 45 strikeouts in 43 innings this past season for North. Casey can run his fastball into the mid-80s with a decent breaking ball, and while he's very young, coach Smith said he could see some time out of the bullpen in the 2010 season.
The Hoosiers open the 2010 season starting on February 19, a three game series at San Diego.
