Three Takeaways From IU Baseball's 6-3 Opening Day Loss Vs. No. 12 Duke

Hoosiers Fall To Blue Devils In Opener

IU’s home field Bart Kaufman After Indiana’s 2019 Big Ten Championship

Tyler Cerny Shines In Opener

With the caveat that it is opening day and anything can happen, here are some observations from the game.

The biggest bright spot today was sophomore Tyler Cerny. Expectations were high for the returnee even after a position switch. After playing second base almost all of last season, he was moved to shortstop with the graduation of stalwart Phillip Glasser.

Cerny showed he was more than up for the task with multiple gold glove plays in the field. He also showed off his bat with a two-run home run to get IU on the board. For Indiana to reach their lofty preseason expectations, they need Cerny (and the rest of the offense) to have a huge season and this was a great start for him.

Risedorph Was Excellent In Start With Limited Innings, Kraft Struggles

With ace Luke Sinnard out for the season after elbow surgery, the Hoosiers have no proven pitchers to provide length, despite a really good depth of arms. This was on full display in the opener.

Long reliever Brayden Risedorph was excellent in 4+ innings giving up just one run to a high-powered offense. However, he was unable to give a solid six innings as most Friday starters would. This shows IU may have to rely on piecing together each game a few innings at a time if Risedorph and others can’t be stretched out as the year goes on. It is a risky strategy and remains to be seen if this unorthodox approach can be successful as it was at times last season.

The biggest red flag though (with an asterisk of it being opening day) was Ryan Kraft out of the bullpen. Kraft was Indiana’s utility pitcher in 2023 with long innings out of the bullpen and spot starts as the squad’s best arm. What the Hoosiers got against Duke was anything but that. Kraft gave up four runs including two homers in just over an inning and did not look sharp. For IU to be the contender everyone expects, they need much better from their workhorse. More than anything from the opener, Indiana fans have to hope Kraft’s bad outing was a fluke or it could spell trouble for the Cream and Crimson going forward.

This Weekend is One Of The Few Opportunities For High-Quality Wins

While the Big Ten is a power conference in most sports, in baseball it sits a tier below that. With it being the only cold-weather power conference, it is more akin to what the Mountain West or Atlantic 10 are in basketball with a few good teams at the top with only 2-3 bids to the NCAA Tournament most years. This has been true the last decade and is actually a huge improvement from previous to that. Before the 2010s, the league was almost always a one-bid conference that could not compete nationally no different from the MAC or Horizon League.

For this season and in most of the recent previous ones, Indiana has been one of the main flag carriers of the Big Ten going to postseason on an almost yearly basis. 2024 is expected to be no different as the Hoosiers are thought to be in competition with Iowa for the conference title and be a good bit better than the rest of the league (Sound familiar recently women’s basketball fans?). It should be noted these two don’t face off in the regular season with each team only seeing eight of 13 league opponents every season.

Because of all of this, the Hoosiers need to make hay in the pre-conference to reach the NCAA Tourney and have limited opportunities to do so. Duke is probably the second-best side the Cream and Crimson will see in 2024, so an opening loss is no cause for panic.

However, this means upcoming games against Coastal Carolina tomorrow, and Alabama, Dallas Baptist, Arizona, Troy, Vanderbilt, Indiana State, and Louisville coming up soon and later in the year are of the utmost importance for the resume. Indiana also needs to avoid slipping up much against the rest of their schedule versus inferior squads. This is very much within reach but something that still needs to be accomplished.