Indiana Baseball Drops Series Finale 13-5 against San Diego

The Hoosiers struggle in all aspects of play for the second straight game against San Diego

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — After opening the season with back-to-back strong performances against then-ranked No. 11 LSU and Siena, sophomore Braydon Tucker has now struggled in his last two outings, recording the loss as Indiana fell to San Diego 13-5.

From the first pitch, Tucker looked uncomfortable on the mound.

The big right-handed pitcher couldn’t get a feel for his off-speed pitches that he relies on, walking the first batter of the afternoon on just five pitches and hanging pitches over the middle of the plate.

In the second inning, Tucker grooved a fastball down the middle to senior Adam Lopez and didn’t even have to turn after hearing the crack of the bat. Lopez launched a no-doubt solo home run over the left-field wall that opened the floodgates for the Toreros’ offense. Later in the inning, San Diego’s leadoff batter, junior Tora Otsuka, ripped a liner down the left-field line that got stuck in the corner scoring another run.

For the second-straight time, Indiana’s starting pitcher couldn’t go deep in the game as Tucker only lasted 4.2 innings before head coach Jeff Mercer made a move to the bullpen.

Tucker finished the day allowing five runs, ten hits, three walks and striking out three batters. Even more troubling was the fact that the sophomore from Brazil, Ind., never was able to find the zone. Tucker isn’t a power pitcher, so he relies on his pitch’s movement and painting the edge of the strike zone to get batters out, but only 65% of his pitches were for strikes.

The Hoosiers’ bullpen was not much better — outside of senior Connor Manous who threw 1.2 scoreless innings — allowing seven runs in 5.1 innings of relief.

The biggest problem for Indiana’s pitchers were the inconsistencies throughout the game. Each pitcher showed a glimpse of strong pitching with either an overpowering fastball or an off-speed pitch that fooled the batter, but more often they struggled to hit their spots, hanging pitches over the plate.

“We didn’t pitch well,” Mercer said. “We didn’t execute pitches, we didn’t execute two-strike breaking balls, we didn’t locate our fastball. We were changing arm slots and doing silly things that young teams do and those things showed themselves.”

At the plate, the Hoosiers were not much better. Once again, San Diego’s starter carrier a no-hitter into the middle innings as it took a bloop single from senior Collin Hopkins with two outs in the fourth inning to break Indiana into the hit column.

The Hoosiers had plenty of baserunners as the team did a good job drawing walks but fell into the same struggles that plagued the offense at the beginning of the season, stranding 13 runners on base.

Mercer has instilled a patient approach to the plate but today, the Hoosiers went a little too far. Indiana’s batters failed to capitalize on hitters counts throughout the game, watching breaking-balls land inside the zone for strikes while ahead in the count instead of pouncing on opportunities to generate offense.

“We had a lot of runners on base, a lot of traffic, and then we just didn’t find a way to get anybody home,” junior Drew Ashley said. “We were just a little bit complacent today.”

Indiana just has one day off before playing two mid-week games against Evansville and Cincinnati on Tuesday and Wednesday and will look to break out of this lull they find themselves in and return to form.

“We’re the same team we were the first three weeks and we’re the same team we were today,” Mercer told the team after the game. “You’ve got the decision to make to follow the road map to success or not. The important thing is to remember that you’re still the good team you have been for a long period of time and you don’t have to be the team that for less than 24 hours wasn’t very good.”

Related Indiana Baseball Stories:

• Indiana Splits Doubleheader: Tale of two games as the Hoosiers split Saturday's doubleheader against San Diego. Click Here
• Indiana 2020 Schedule: Complete list of games for the Hoosiers. Click Here
• Indiana 2020 Roster: Complete 2020 roster for the Hoosiers. Click Here