Indiana Baseball Wins Dramatic Iowa Series, Remains Atop Big Ten Standings
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – Indiana had mustered one run in the first 18.1 innings of its weekend series against Iowa when Saturday's game entered extra innings.
In the opposite dugout stood a Hawkeyes squad that had Indiana's number last year, scoring 44 runs in a series sweep in Iowa City. On the mound was Kevin Voelker, who was riding a 4.1-inning shutout when Indiana right fielder Morgan Colopy stepped to the plate, his teammate Carter Mathison on first base.
After dropping Friday's series opener 7-1, Indiana was desperate for a clutch hit. Voelker's first pitch of the at-bat caught far too much of the plate, and Colopy sent the ball flying out to left field. Clanging off the foul pole, Colopy's walk-off home run gave Indiana a 2-0 victory.
"To be honest, I don't really remember after I hit second base. I kind of just blacked out," Colopy said. "I was just so excited for our team to win that big game."
Colopy's heroics were a sign of things to come on Sunday, when Indiana and Iowa met for the rubber match. The Hoosiers fell into an early deficit when Iowa's Sam Hojnar grounded out with the bases loaded to drive in the game's first run. And across the first six innings, Indiana left seven runners on base.
As Iowa called on its second arm out of the bullpen, Jacob Henderson, Indiana's Bobby Whalen dug into the batter's box with runners on first and second base in the seventh inning. Whalen's line drive found centerfield grass, driving in a run to tie the game.
Iowa regained the lead in the eighth inning, scoring on a Tyler Cerny error with two outs. In the bottom half, Indiana's Peter Serruto came through with his fourth hit of the game to score Mathison and tie the game at two runs apiece. After an Iowa pitching change, Whalen's clutch hitting continued with a ground ball that snuck through the infield and drove in two runs.
Indiana relief pitcher Brayden Risedorph allowed a single to the start the ninth inning, then induced a double play and a strikeout to end the game and secure Indiana's 4-2 win.
"He's got the clutch gene," Serruto said of Whalen. "We can always rely on him. Working on things off to the side with Bobby and seeing it come through in the game is awesome. Really happy for him."
Serruto and Mathison led the Hoosiers with four hits apiece this weekend, while Colopy and Whalen provided the late-game heroics. On the mound, Craig Yoho struck out three batters and allowed just one hit in 3.1 scoreless innings on Sunday. Luke Sinnard and Ryan Kraft combined for 10 shutout innings on Saturday, striking out 17 batters and allowing six hits.
With a pair of dramatic wins on Saturday and Sunday after a six-run loss on Friday, Indiana moves to 22-10 overall, 17-1 at home and 7-2 in the Big Ten play, good for first place in the conference. Next up is a matchup against Ball State on Tuesday at Bart Kaufman Field before traveling to Illinois next weekend.
"I would say pretty excited," Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said of the locker room after Sunday's win. "Probably, namely, me. They've just come a long way in a year. Obviously the way the Iowa series went last year at their place, you don't forget that very quickly."