Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers in Must-Win Situation Now Vs. Nebraska

Indiana trails Nebraska by 1.5 games in the Big Ten baseball race with only two weeks to go in the season, and they square off the next two nights in Bloomington. Indiana needs a sweep to regain the conference lead.

BLOOMINGTON, ind. – Some games, they just mean more. And Indiana's huge showdown with Nebraska really means a lot on Friday night.

The Hoosiers and Huskers have been trading ownership of the Big Ten baseball lead for the past month or so. For the moment, it's the Huskers (25-11) who are in front, leading the Hoosiers (24-12) by 1.5 games. The two teams meet on Friday and Saturday in Bloomington, and the outcome is likely going to determine the league race, though Michigan and Maryland still might have a say in that, as well.

It's Indiana that's in chase mode now, so there's no doubt that Friday's game is a must-win situation. To make matters worse, they'll have to beat Nebraska ace Cade Povich on Friday. He's 5-1 on the season, with a stellar 2.74 earned run average. He'll deal against Indiana's Tommy Sommer, who had to leave last week's start at Michigan in the third innings because of a split fingernail.

Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said he's good to go against Nebraska. 

"We'll keep the same rotation. Tommy should be fine. His finger is doing a lot better and he played catch today,'' Mercer said on Tuesday night after Indiana's 3-2 loss to Illinois. "I talked to him. He played catch today and felt a lot better. They've been working on his finger, and he's fine.''

Sommer has been Indiana's regular Friday starter all season, and he's been very good lately after fixing some control issues. He's 5-3 on the season, with a 3.88 earned run average.

He split his fingernail last Friday and then started struggling with him command, and he didn't survive the third inning. He's a feel pitcher, so it's going to be interesting to see how well he throws on Friday night.

Because there are an odd number of teams in the Big Ten – Wisconsin doesn't field a team – every weekend there is a three-team pod, and it's the Hoosiers who are hosting that this weekend. They'll play Nebraska twice, and then play Ohio State on Sunday and Monday. 

Nebraska and Ohio State will play twice in Bloomington as well, playing the early games on Saturday and Sunday. 

Friday's game starts at 8 p.m. ET and will be broadcast nationally on the Big Ten Network. Saturday's game is at 6:30 p.m. ET and can be seen on ESPNU. Both of the Indiana-Ohio State games are on the Big Ten Network, as well.

The Hoosiers have a back-loaded schedule, getting all the Big Ten leaders at the end. They lost two of three games at Michigan last weekend, and then lost to Illinois in a makeup game on Sunday. Prior to that, they split two games with Nebraska in a three-team pod at Rutgers, so the Hoosiers have now lost three of four, and four of their last six.

They need a big weekend, and it will be tough. Ohio State beat the Hoosiers four straight in Columbus in early April. That was a serious gut punch at the time, but then the Hoosiers went 12-3 from  there to get back into first place, not falling out until last weekend at Michigan. 

They didn't hit much Sunday in the rubber-game loss to Michigan, and wasted several opportunities in Tuesday night's loss to Illinois as well. Their bats, which were red hot for a month, have cooled off lately.

"It is frustrating after watching us be so much better offensively the past couple of weeks,'' Mercer said Tuesday night. "We've shown the ability to do the things that we need to do, and we have confidence in getting it done. We'll lick our wounds a little bit and be better for the weekend, because we've got a lot of arms coming in.''

Sticking to that one game at a time premise will help. The Hoosiers did it coming out of that Ohio State, and they know they're capable of doing it again. 

"That's the ultimate message. We've been here before,'' Mercer said. "There are ebbs and flows throughout the course of the season, and we're going to have to do that again. 

"We're going to have to be tough enough to regroup ourselves, and we're not going to have an option. We can't get our feelings hurt. We have to move on.''

Related stories on Indiana baseball

• MERCER UPSET NO FANS: Indiana baseball coach Jeff Mercer sounded off about the university not updated its policy on allowing fans for this final weekend of the season. CLICK HERE
• ILLINI TAKE DOWN HOOSIERS: Indiana wasted a great pitching night, unable to get any timely hits in a 3-2 loss in 10 innings to Illinois on Tuesday. CLICK HERE
• BIG TEN STANDINGS, SCHEDULE: Indiana took a half-game lead in the Big Ten, barely ahead of Nebraska and Michigan. Here's the latest, plus this weekend's critical schedule. CLICK HERE
• INDIANA SCHEDULE: Here is Indiana's complete schedule for the season, including links to game stories from Tom Brew for every game this season. CLICK HERE