Starter Blake Monar gave up a leadoff homerun on the first pitch of the game, and struggled with his control throughout his short outing walking 6 through only 4.1 innings. Those walks, in addition to 6 hits (3 for extra bases), led to 5 earned runs against the Hoosier freshman. In the 5th in a 5-5 deadlock with 2 runners on and 1 out, Coach Tracy Smith made the call to the bullpen to Joey O'Gara who got out of the inning quickly with no further damage done.
The 6th inning was a different story for O'Gara as he gave up 5 straight hits that led to 3 runs. O'Gara started the 7th and quickly was relieved by Wyatt Hoff after hitting the leadoff batter. Hoff induced the double play ball he needed, but Jake Dunning committed the error to allow both runners to reach safely. After getting behind 2-0 to the next batter, Coach Smith went to Chris Squires who loaded the bases with 2 more straight balls. With the bases loaded and no outs, the Hoosiers chose to play double play depth and got the ball and play the needed, but the runner from 3rd scored the go ahead run to take the 9-8 lead. Squires struck out the next batter to go into the 8th down by 1. The Boilermakers tacked on 6 more runs in the bottom of the 8th off "Q" and Freshman lefthander Drew Leininger including a 3-run homer to stretch their lead to 15-8 going into the 9th.
Despite a poor starting performance from Monar, we were still tied at 5-5 when he left very much in the game. We must, however, limit the walks because we cannot give free passes (especially when Monar has done a good job this year of limiting hits). Regardless, we have to have better bullpen performances because you are not going to win too many games when the other team scores 15 runs (10 combined in innings 6, 7, and 8)!
The Hoosier offense banged out 12 hits as 8 of the 9 starters had at least one hit (only leadoff Brian Lambert did not record a hit as he struggled in the leadoff spot today going 0-5 with 3 Ks). Indiana was led at the plate by Josh Phegley (2-3, 1 run, 2 BBs), Alex Dickerson (2-5, 2 runs), Vince Gonzalez (2-4, 3 RBIs, 1 run), and Kipp Schutz (2-3, 1 run, 1 RBI) with 2 a piece.
Let's take the next 2 and win the series! Go Hoosiers!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
You can't have someone start on Wednesday, throw 5 innings, and come back and pitch on Friday!
ReplyDeleteIt was Saturday but it is still kinda short rest. He didn't throw too many pitches Wednesday though. Looking at it now, it is easy to say we should have went to Carr or even Squires earlier, but you never know what would have happened then either.
ReplyDelete