Indiana Baseball: Hoosiers Kick Away Series Opener With Iowa, Lose 6-5

Indiana allowed three unearned runs and dropped the series opener to Iowa 6-5 on Friday night, with a late rally coming up short. The two teams meet again on Saturday.

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana has hung its hat on pitching and defense all season, but it wasn't as sharp on Friday night. The Hoosiers allowed three unearned run in a 6-5 loss to Iowa in the first game of an important Big Ten series.

With the loss, the Hoosiers fell to 18-9 on the season, two games behind Nebraska in the Big Ten standings. Iowa is 19-11, and is now a half-game behind the Hoosiers.

Indiana came into the game with the second-best defense in the Big Ten, but they were sloppy on Friday, committing three errors. All three were on routine plays, and all three were painful.

"We've played well defensively all year, but tonight we made some mistakes and they all really cost us,'' Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said. "We had three errors on things we practice all the time, and we had leadoff walks and errors early that all cost us. You can't do that against a good team like Iowa that plays great fundamental baseball.''

Iowa scored solo unearned runs in the second and fourth innings, with first baseman Kip Fougerousse misplaying a pickoff throw in the second and shortstop James Espalin letting a ball get through his legs in the fourth.

Iowa scored twice in the third when a walk by Tommy Sommer preceded an Austin Martin home run. 

Sommer (5-2) lasted only four innings because of a high pitch count. He threw 94 pitches, and just 51 strikes. He allowed four runs, two earned, with five hits and four walks. He had three strikeouts. 

Iowa scored twice in the sixth off of reliever Braydon Tucker, with another run being unearned when right fielder Morgan Colopy misplayed a single that rolled through his legs all the way to the wall. The second run, which was credited as an earned run, was made possible by the error, as well.

Indiana cut into their 6-3 lead in the bottom of the eighth. Grant Richardson opened the inning with a double down the right field line, and then Cole Barr walked. They each moved up a base on a Colopy groundout, and then Richardson scored on an Ethan Vecrumba groundout. Kip Fougerousse scratched out a two-out singled to make it 6-5, but the inning ended on a Collin Hopkins flyout to left.

Reese Sharp pitched a perfect ninth for Indiana, but in the bottom of the inning, James Espalin struck out, Ashley grounded out to short and Paul Toetz flied out to the warning track in right to end the game.

Indiana's bullpen kept the Hoosiers in the game, and gave them a chance to come back. Tucker was good, Braden Scott  threw two hitless innings and Sharp was perfect in the ninth.

"Our bullpen has been great all year, a real strength for us, and they were good tonight,'' Mercer said. "It was nice to see Braden Scott throw well and Reese was exceptional there in the ninth. I have no problem going to them early like we did today.''

Indiana scored twice in the bottom of the second after falling behind 1-0. Third baseman Cole Barr led off the inning with a triple in the right-center gap and scored on a Morgan Colopy single, Collin Hopkins drove in the second run on a sacrifice fly.

B2 | @colebarrr to the back‼️ pic.twitter.com/e7ntVdbYNr

— Indiana Baseball (@IndianaBase) April 30, 2021

The Hoosiers added another run in the fifth when Ashley singled, went to third on a double by Toetz and scored on a Grant Richardson groundou

The two teams get together again on Saturday, McCade Brown (4-2, 2.41 earned run average) will take the mound for Indiana against Iowa's Drew Irvine (2-3, 4.62 ERA). Brown didn't pitch last weekend in the Minnesota series, so it will be interesting to see how sharp he is.

In the series finale on Sunday, red-hot Gabe Bierman (3-2, 2.21 ERA) starts against Cam Baumann (4-2, 2.68 ERA). Bierman has allowed only one earned run in his past  three starts.

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