Three Takeaways From IU Baseball's Weekend Series Vs. Rutgers

Hoosiers Sweep Scarlet Knights After Struggles Early In The Season

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

Where Indiana Baseball Stands Currently After Winning Rutgers Series

With March Madness and life events keeping me from IU baseball coverage for just over a month, this weekend’s series against Rutgers will be as much of a catch-up on where the squad is at as recapping the series. The Hoosiers currently sit at 25-18-1 and 10-5 in the Big Ten with an RPI in the 70s. That is well out of contention at the moment for a second straight NCAA Tournament following 8-3, 12-6, and 18-6 victories for a sweep against the Scarlet Knights. While this weekend’s result is a good start, much more work needs to be done.

IU outfielder Mick Mitchell who has had a good year at the plate after transferring from Western Illinois, said the team understands they are in must-win situations with the recent turnaround.

“Every game is super important right now,” Mitchell said. “We are going into every game knowing it is the biggest game of the year.”

The Hoosiers do have several really good quad-one victories. However, with a double- digit number of quad-three and four losses their metrics are not near a resume worthy of playing June baseball. With just 11 games left, the Cream and Crimson’s best chance of playing beyond the conference tournament is to win it and get the automatic bid. Only the top eight of the league’s 13 (Wisconsin doesn’t field baseball) competitors make it. However, Indiana sits in a good position here, as they are multiple games clear of ninth place and clustered with several squads fighting for second through eighth place.

While 2024 had not gone as well as planned early, IU has played better of late and is worth a watch now. Ultimately how they finish, will determine how close they come to meeting preseason expectations.

Hoosiers Have Improved Since Early In The Year But Are Having A Down Season Relative To Expectations At The Worst Possible Time For Interest.

IU was expected to compete for a Big Ten Title and easily make the NCAA Tournament after last year’s 43-20 season with most players back. However, early season struggles have made expectations come up way short to this point as described above.

It has also come at the worst possible time for fan interest and media attention. With a high number of professional and college sports in and near Indiana during the spring, the program has to compete for attention from several angles.

For the last decade and especially recently, they have been the most successful sports team in the state making it easy for Hoosier Nation to pay attention to baseball while other squads have struggled. However, that is now changing with different options for local sports that have suddenly become successful.

Whether it be the Indiana Pacers’ playoff run, the sudden interest with the Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark, strong starts from local MLB teams, or even IU Softball making a push for a second straight postseason appearance (although they had a rougher than expected weekend against Wisconsin), plenty of solid sports viewing options are present in the region now. While not all of these squads reside in Bloomington or even within the state’s borders, they do share many of the same fans who follow the city and university sports teams.

As a result, the Hoosier Boys on the Diamond have had a much rougher-than-expected spring at the worst possible time for media coverage and fan interest. While it has gotten better recently, it is quite possible many fans have moved on to the other sports options above given their hype and success, and may not give this squad another look until the postseason if at all.

While the weather has not been the best always, crowds that have regularly exceeded 2,000 in the past, did not have a single game hit that mark until this weekend when Saturday’s crowd barely past it. While mother nature has played a role in that also, the less-than-expected winning likely has as well.

The Hoosiers Gave Up Too Many Big Hits To Their Opponents in 0-2 and 1-2 Counts Early But It Has Improved

The main reason for the underachievement is the pitching as described here. While the issues on the mound have come from multiple angles, maybe the biggest catalyst had been not putting batters away when getting ahead of them.

Indiana has had an inordinate amount of home runs and hard hits given up on 0-2 and 1-2 counts. As the Hoosiers have improved in this area so have the results. The question is whether it has come too late to make anything out of this spring with a very tough schedule remaining. Only time will tell.

IU coach Jeff Mercer said inexperience early on is the reason for this issue happening early.

“I think you have guys in positions that weren’t expected to be in that position,” Mercer said. “A lot of times you overthrow. If I say don’t think about pink elephants the first thing you think about is pink elephants. I am in an 0-2 count and don’t hang me a slider and the first thing you do is hang the hell out of that slider. Execution early was a thing for us where we were soft in the middle”

However, he said as the players on the bump have gotten more experience, the problem has improved.

“Those guys have been in those situations and got their butt kicked and got toughened up,” he said. “You get back in there and do it again and again. You don’t want to hit a guy but you might. It is better than leaving a pitch over the middle of the plate.”