A blog post on September 14 covered the Indiana University baseball team's schedule for 2013. Tuesday, seniors Michael Basil and Trace Knoblauch shared their thoughts on the upcoming season.
The matchup both players mentioned as most exciting was the Hoosiers' series against the University of Florida.
"The one that stands out the most is obviously the Florida matchup," Basil said. "I've wanted to, my entire career here, play an SEC team and I'm glad that we finally get to have that in my senior season. That's definitely, I would say, the big matchup where we want to kind of see where we are in that series."
Knoblauch agreed.
"[I'm] definitely looking forward to the matchup against the University of Florida," he said. "They're nationally renowned as being a really good baseball team. I'm excited to put our squad up against theirs and show the nation what we can do."
Purdue
Both seniors admitted they were disappointed that the Boilermakers aren't on the regular season schedule.
Basil, the shortstop, was covering third base in the 2012 Big Ten Tournament Championship game against Purdue. Purdue scored the game-winning run in the top of the ninth. Instead of reading about how Purdue scored, and the ensuing scuffle, watch the video. (If that link has no video, click here.)
"It's a big rivalry game," Basil said. "They knocked us out of the tournament so we want our revenge. It's the rules of how the Big Ten is doing their schedule now. Hopefully we get to see them in the tournament."
Added Knoblauch, "We always want to play Purdue because we always want to beat 'em. A little disappointed. Kind of wanted to avenge our loss even though it's a different team.
"We'd like to play 'em. They're our rivals, so we want to beat 'em."
Nebraska
Basil said he is excited to see the Huskers' stadium.
"They have a great field," he said. "I'm definitely looking forward to that. It's always more fun to play in front of a big crowd in a nice stadium."
Here is the website showing off Hawks Field at Haymarket Park.
Kentucky
"I definitely am [looking forward to that matchup]," Basil said. "Kentucky is always a good team and we've struggled against them the past two seasons. They've been a lot better as of late than they were earlier in our careers. That's always a big game for us. I definitely want to get that revenge on them too because that was definitely a disappointing way to lose to them last season.
"That's another big game that I'm looking forward to."
Louisville
"It's always a good matchup," Knoblauch said. "They always have really good players, really good pitchers. We're definitely looking forward to playing them too. We lost both times last year, so we're going to try to take a couple from 'em this year."
Postseason?
IU Coach Tracy Smith talked about how his team did not get an NCAA Tournament at-large bid last season. Basil said the Hoosiers' overall record cost them a berth.
"We had too many bad losses early in the season," he said. "While we did well late in the season, we got ourselves in too big of a hole early on. You wish the at-larges would be more based on how you've done lately, that's why you have the whole work of a season.
"You can't take any credit away from teams that did well early in the season. We definitely were good enough and playing at a high enough level to compete in the regional and go to the Super Regional last year."
Basil concluded with a simple message.
"I'm just excited for the season, really"
