Indiana Baseball Falls Short in 5-4 Loss to Evansville

The Hoosiers have dropped their last three games after falling to in-state foe Evansville Tuesday night.

Caleb Coffman | Mar 11, 2020

Indiana Baseball Falls Short in 5-4 Loss to Evansville /

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — Indiana dropped its third straight game in a 5-4 loss to Evansville on the road, snapping the team’s six-game win-streak over the Aces.

The Hoosiers were stunned as their comeback fell short because of a controversial call when the team’s game-tying run in the eighth inning was taken off the board.

With runners on first and second with no outs, sophomore Grant Richardson grounded into what appeared to be a botched double play as the Evansville shortstop threw the ball away, allowing senior Jeremy Houston to score the tying run.

However, the run was taken off the board as the umpire ruled that junior Drew Ashley’s slide into second base was illegal and interfered with the shortstop's ability to make the play.

Indiana’s late-inning comeback fell short comes partly as a result of another poor starting pitching performance.

In his collegiate debut, freshman pitcher John Modugno showed his inexperience as he struggled in his three innings of work. He gave After up a run in the first inning, with Modugno struggling all night with his command, falling behind batters and issuing four walks. He was able to work himself out of trouble with opportune strikeouts.

However, in the third inning, Evansville jumped all over the young pitcher. Modugno lost the feel for his off-speed pitches, allowing the Aces to string together a mix of hits, walks, and hit batsmen to load the bases. While the big right-handed pitcher lost confidence in his breaking ball, his over-reliance on the fastball allowed Evansville’s batters to jump on pitches and drive the ball.

With one out in the third, Modugno grooved a belt-high fastball that was ripped into left field for an RBI single to give the Aces the lead. Modugno, a freshman from Upper Saddle River, N.J., followed that up by walking in a run before hanging another fastball down the middle that was smacked into the gap for a two-RBI single and a 5-1 Evansville lead.

Junior Cole Barr cut the lead in half in the next half inning as he jumped on a hanging changeup, ripping it into the right-center field gap for a two-RBI triple. Freshman Ethan Vecrumba later cut the lead to one with a sacrifice fly in the fifth inning, but the Hoosiers couldn’t find the tying run despite outstanding relief pitching that kept them in the game.

Freshman Nathan Stahl and senior Braden Scott were nearly perfect out of the bullpen as they did everything in their power to give the Hoosiers a chance to come back and win the game. The two pitchers combined for five shutout innings of relief, striking out seven batters, allowing two hits while giving up just one walk.

Indiana will get a chance at redemption when the team plays Cincinnati on Wednesday in its second-midweek matchup in as many days.

Here are the particulars on Wednesday’s matchup:

Who: Cincinnati Bearcats (7-7) vs. Indiana Hoosiers (8-6)
When: Wednesday, March. 11, 4:05 p.m. ET
Where: Bart Kaufman Field, Bloomington, Ind.
Probable Starters: Garrett Schoenle (RHP) for Cincinnati, David Platt (RHP) for Indiana.
Television: BTN
Radio: Indiana Radio Network
Announcer: Austin Render

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