Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers Face 2 Ranked Opponents This Weekend

Indiana Baseball takes on No. 17 East Carolina, High Point and No. 13 Ole Miss in Greenville, N.C. over the weekend.

Caleb Coffman | Feb 28, 2020

Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers Face 2 Ranked Opponents This Weekend /

BLOOMINGTON, Ind — Indiana Baseball once again heads south this weekend, this time heading to Greenville, N.C., as it looks to extend its four-game win streak in the Keith LeClair Classic.

The Hoosiers will play two ranked opponents this weekend, taking on No. 17 East Carolina on Friday, and No. 13 Ole Miss on Sunday. Indiana will play High Point on Saturday.

Indiana swept the South Alabama Invitational last weekend on the back of strong pitching performances from its starters and a dominant showing from junior Elijah Dunham who hit seven-for-11 with a home run, two doubles, three RBIs, four runs and four walks.

This weekend provides the Hoosiers another opportunity to add ranked-wins to their resume before conference play begins.

Here are the particulars on this weekend’s series:

Who: No. 17 Easter Carolina (7-1), High Point (5-4), No.13 Ole Miss (7-1) vs. Indiana Hoosiers (4-2)
When: Friday, Feb. 28, 4:30 p.m. ET; Saturday, Feb. 29, 12 p.m. ET; Sunday, Mar. 1, 10 a.m. ET.
Where: Lewis Field at Clark-Leclair Stadium, Greenville, N.C.
Poll Rankings: East Carolina enters the game at No. 17 while Ole Miss enters the game ranked-13 in the country.
Weekend Starters: Friday (Gabe Bierman v. Alec Burleson), Saturday (Tommy Sommer v. TBD) and Sunday (Braydon Tucker v. Derek Diamond).
Radio: Indiana Radio Network
Announcer: Austin Render

Here are three things I’m looking to see from Indiana:

1. Cut down on errors

In the Hoosiers’ three-game series in Alabama, fielding continued to be a problem for the Hoosiers as they committed five errors. A big piece of the team’s struggles in the field can be explained by the fact that Indiana has been relegated to practicing inside for most of the early spring.

The Hoosiers now have committed nine fielding errors in six games this season, a trend that needs to be corrected quickly as the team looks to add two more ranked wins and prove they belong in the upper tier of college baseball.

2. Closing pitching

In the first two games against UT-Martin and South Alabama, Indiana had some late-game scares as the bullpen couldn’t slam the door against either opponent. In each game, the Hoosiers allowed the Skyhawks and Jaguars to threaten in the ninth inning.

Against UT-Martin, junior Connor Manous created some drama late in the game as he allowed two hits and a walk while striking out five batters to earn a two-inning save as Indiana narrowly escaped with a 3-2 win.

Against South Alabama, it was sophomore McCade Brown who created drama walking two batters in the ninth inning before working out of trouble with two strikeouts to earn the save.

Going into the season, pitching was the biggest question mark for the Hoosiers, now that the starters have proven they are capable against strong competition the last frontier seems to be the bullpen.

3. Continued top-of-order production

When Indiana’s offense has been most dangerous, the top of the order has carried the team. In the weekend series in Mobile, Ala., the top-four batters in the Hoosiers’ order accounted for 15 of the team’s 26 hits.

It’s good news that the returning players at the top of the lineup have taken a step forward from last season as they are slowly starting to fill the holes left behind by Matt Lloyd and Matt Gorski nicely.

If the Hoosiers can get more production from the bottom of the order and have it feed into the top of the lineup, an already dangerous lineup that has shown its ability to score may truly explode.

1. Cut down on errors

2. Closing pitching

3. Continued top-of-order production

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