Indiana Baseball Enters Top 25 After Successful Opening Weekend in South Carolina

No. 23 Indiana baseball (2-1) traveled to South Carolina over the weekend to face No. 12 Duke, No. 25 Coastal Carolina and George Mason. The Hoosiers lost on Opening Day, but won the next two games and entered D1Baseball's top-25 poll as a result.

Despite losing to No. 12 Duke 6-3 on Friday afternoon, Indiana baseball strung together wins over then-No. 18 Coastal Carolina and George Mason to close the weekend. That was enough to crack D1Baseball’s top-25 poll, announced Monday. The last time Indiana was in D1Baseball's top 25 was May, 2021, lasting two weeks. 

The No. 23 Hoosiers beat the Chanticleers 7-2, which hosted the round-robin weekend in Myrtle Beach, S.C., and then beat George Mason 9-3 on Sunday. 

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For the Hoosiers, Saturday’s joust with Coastal Carolina opened in an identical manner to their Duke loss on Friday. Both right-handed starters — Coastal’s Alexander Meckley and Indiana’s Connor Foley — were locked into their pitchers’ duel. They each threw the first four innings scoreless, combining for 13 strikeouts. Foley recorded seven in his first-career start.

Foley, last season’s rookie bullpen staple, was held to 77 pitches, 45 for strikes, before being pulled prior to the fifth inning. And that’s when Indiana pounced on Meckley. With one out and the bases loaded, Devin Taylor’s single and Brock Tibbitts’ sacrifice-fly put Indiana ahead 2-0. Yet, with two runners in scoring position, Tyler Cerny routinely grounded out to end the frame.

Cerny had done enough Friday. He batted 2-for-4, including his first home run of the season and three great plays in the infield. But against the Blue Devils, the Hoosiers went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Versus top teams like Coastal, it was reasonable to think every run would be needed. Coastal’s bottom of the sixth inning began to prove that.

Cerny’s throwing error on the routine ground ball kicked things off, and Graham Brown’s double two batters later put Coastal on the board. Then, Dean Mihos’ single tied the ballgame 2-2. Bothwell, who was unproductive in the beginning of last season and really turned it on by the postseason, hit Ty Dooley to load the bases. He escaped by striking out the next batter on three pitches.

The score stayed tied 2-2 until the eighth inning, when Houston transfer Brandon Burkcel hit perhaps an unexpected solo home run to put the Hoosiers on top, 3-2. It was Burkcel’s first hit of the season, and he only hit three home runs in 156 at-bats with the Cougars in 2023. Indiana’s bats weren’t done there. Providing insurance runs, Cerny hit a two-run single, and freshman AJ Shepard belted his first-career home run after missing all of last season due to Tommy John surgery.

Bothwell secured the 7-2 victory in the ninth, which marked the Hoosiers' first of the season and helped them crack the top 25. Bothwell pitched five innings and allowed zero earned runs – both of Coastal’s runs were unearned. 

Indiana's task Sunday was to not let that go to waste by losing to George Mason, which had already been blown out twice by Duke and Coastal that weekend. The Hoosiers scored five runs in the first three innings.

Indiana right-handed sophomore Ethan Phillips started and tossed 3⅔ innings, striking out five. Seti Manase helped Phillips end the threat in the fourth, later allowing only one run in the sixth, and Boston College transfer Julian Tonghini completed the nine-out save. All were first appearances of the season for the pitchers. 

At the plate, Carter Mathison and Shepard each hit their second home runs of the season. Junior Josh Pyne went 3-for-6 to get back on track and star freshman Andrew Wiggins, who pinch-hit, sliced his first collegiate hit to the opposite field.

In the sixth inning, Shepard collided with an opposing runner at first base and exited the game. Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer called it a left arm injury Sunday, and said they’ll know more in the following 24 hours. 

For now, the Hoosiers are 2-1 on the season with their productive opening weekend. Indiana will host Miami (Ohio) in its home opener Tuesday at 4 p.m. ET at Bart Kaufman Field. The game will be broadcast on Big Ten-plus.

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