3 Takeaways From IU Baseball's 5-1 Loss Vs. Purdue

Pitching Continues To Haunt Program For Fourth Straight Year

Bart Kaufman Field In Bloomington Where Indiana And Purdue Played Saturday

Pitching Woes Continue To Be Yearly Issue

Bloomington-The last four years since IU pitching coach Dustin Glant assumed the role continues to be an inconsistent adventure. Without fail, it takes the team at least half a season to figure out established roles and find constant starters during his tenure.

While the ERA and overall numbers are not perfect, this could be overlooked if not for the above issue. The reality is hitting is up in college baseball, and stats on the mound look bleak for many.

However, what has occurred under Glant with the lack of set roles is unique to his time in Bloomington compared to others. During his time, Indiana has had what would be considered two weekend starters (Luke Sinnard in 2023 and Conor Foley in 2024), who were guaranteed to give length pending a bad outing in his four spring tenure.

That number is what the vast majority of squads find in one year not four. This weekend’s opponent in IU’s archrival Purdue has struggled mightily (more below) almost without fail for its entire history. However, they still have at least two starters picked out and identified each campaign that go each weekend from the start to varying degrees of success.

This contrasts with Glant, who seemingly can’t get this basic part of managing a staff on the mound in defined roles. Whether this is due to development, or lack of recruiting talent, or something else, the status quo cannot continue.

Hoosier coach Jeff Mercer said the mixing and matching is out of necessity and not his preferred method.

“You’d love to be able to do that,” Mercer said. “You can define those as much as you want, but the game tells you (differently). You’ve got to finish games when you have a chance to win them. The fear is always you have a winnable game in hand and you hold a guy that will win the game for you for a situation that may come. Ideally, you can line guys up and have defined roles, but you have to problem solve and find the best way to be successful.”

With all this said, Ryan Kraft and Ben Grable (Saturday’s starter) have come on down the stretch. However, their role is not always defined. A few pitchers figuring it out late in the season after early struggles has been another typical trait of Glant’s time. Workman Ty Bothwell, who had his eligibility expire after 2024, was the best example of someone who struggled each spring early and was nearly perfect down the stretch.

The bottom line with all of this is while other struggles have occurred since 2022, the inability to find defined roles in Bloomington for the pitching staff is unique. The ability for this to change is what will define if the success of the last decade-and-a-half can continue and make 2025 an anomaly.

Archrival Purdue Is Not IU’s Measuring Stick When It Comes To Baseball

While how good IU is in men’s basketball can often be measured by its performance against its arch-rivals, the same cannot be said for this sport on the diamond. The Boilermakers have arguably been the worst program in the Big Ten both historically and recently.

The Hoosiers were on the same struggle bus with Purdue until 2008. However, since then, Indiana has been arguably the league’s most consistent program with six conference championships and nine postseason appearances with just a single year with a losing record overall in that time. While, the lack of having a sub .500 record will continue, another Big Ten title or NCAA appearence is not likely (more below).

For reference, the Boilers in this same period had one miracle season in 2012 that featured a 45-14 record and hosting a regional and one other NCAA appearance in 2017. Outside of this, almost nothing has gone right either historically or currently.

As a result, while the rivalry between IU and Purdue is a lot of fun, the success of Indiana’s program does not rest on results against them and is mostly for state pride. The Hoosiers’ ability to win big is much more looked at based on matchups with other teams near the top of the league.

Where Indiana Stands Currently And For The Future

Despite being one of the favorites to win the league and coast into another NCAA Regional, IU’s issues on the mound (see above) have kept reality much lower. They sit at just 28-22 overall and 13-13 in the league after losing Saturday’s 5-1 result against the Boilers.

With an RPI hovering well outside at-large range, the Hoosiers must win the conference tournament. It should be noted winning the Big Ten Tournament in Omaha has gotten somewhat easier with IU now requiring this auto bid to reach June baseball. The competition will increase to 12 schools and with four pods of pool play now, it will only take four victories to win the event. However, with double elimination gone, any slip-ups are likely to be fatal.

Going 2-0 in your round-robin pod is a virtual must to reach the semi-finals, as only the winner of each pool advances. However, once there, just two more victories would be needed to be the champion.

The Hoosiers have made it come to this though due to the continued issues on the mound that have manifested each spring since 2022. As a result, they have basically thrown away (barring winning it all in Omaha) the performances of two very high draft picks in this summer’s draft in Devin Taylor and Korbyn Dickerson.

Taylor is the Hoosiers’ all-time home runs leader, and led his team to the postseason in 2023 and 2024 and will go down in Indiana lore as an all-time great. However, barring a surprise in the league tourney in a couple of weeks, his career will end in May instead of June, like it has in the past.

While the offense had its own struggles Saturday and has at times this season, the lack of strong consistent pitching is why the team is where they are. As a result, this performance on the mound cannot continue into 2026.

While attendance is much more based on weather (Saturday’s beautiful day saw a solid 2,534 attend), the overall engagement of the fan base depends on continued postseason appearances. The Indianapolis Indians just north of Bloomington and other minor league squads draw huge numbers on nice days in the summer.

However, this is much more to take in a baseball game and experience the nice weather. For true investment in a college program, NCAA appearances and winning are required. While Indiana’s fan base needs to do a better job in general of supporting non-elite teams that win, massively underachieving and likely missing postseason, as has happened this spring, really doesn’t endear anyone to want to devote more time to following the squad this spring.

The future though could be different. Pending transfers, Indiana has a solid core of elite freshman on offense in Hogan Denny, Jake Hanley, Cooper Malamazian, and Will Moore. However, this will only matter if all of these guys stay and the performance on the mound improves and defined roles here are found.

A Personal P.S. Note

As some may have noticed, this is only my third game I have covered for IU baseball this season after being present for nearly every Big Ten series start to finish since my role with Assembly Call began in 2019. A combination of the struggles by the team and a change in life circumstances (nothing negative), have made getting out to Bart Kaufman Field more difficult for me.

Rest assured, I will be back this fall with full coverage of all Hoosier sports as I do each academic year. While it may not be quite as often as in the past, I am not going away and take pride in my work. I will see everyone again for a full season of men’s soccer and other autumn sports beginning in August.

Thanks to all for continuing to read my stories. I appreciate everyone’s devotion to following myself, as well as the Assembly Call and Back Home Network in general. Our site and my role would not be possible without our subscribers and readers!

_____________________________________________________________________