Prior to the season start, Indiana baseball was slotted to finish second in Big Ten standings, falling just short of Iowa in the preseason poll.
Fast forward to a few days away from their first Big Ten series, and Indiana is just over .500, coming off a 12-7 midweek loss to Indiana State.
Indiana State is a respectable loss, as they are coming off a MVC Championship and NCAA run in the 2023 season. However, as you delve deeper into the Indiana record, the signs are not positive.
Their first hiccup in the season came in late February where, stop me if you’ve heard this before, Purdue Fort Wayne came and upset Indiana in a midweek contest. The Mastodons, who currently sit at #184 in the RPI rankings, snapped a six-game Hoosier winning streak.
Since that game, Indiana is 5-8, with their record totaling out at 11-10.
Things got ugly when Illinois State came to Bloomington two weeks later and shut down the Hoosiers in seven innings, 16-6. The Redbirds, now ranked #127 in the RPI, holds a 9-9 record on the season.
Along with a series loss to Troy and blowout losses to both Arizona and Alabama, Indiana has struggled to contend with teams who get ahead early and don’t look back.
One major factor that has caused Indiana’s setback has been their lack of consistent pitching.
Aside from Connor Foley, who has lived up to his preseason watch list recognition, Indiana’s pitching has proven to be a liability in some key moments. Combined on the season, Indiana has a 7.35 ERA so far on the season, which is two points higher than last season’s finish. They have also given up double-digit runs on seven different occasions.
Foley leads qualified pitchers with a 4.63 ERA, which was sub-three before his Saturday start against Belmont last weekend. Ty Bothwell is the only other qualified hurler in terms of innings pitched with 22.2 and an ERA of 5.16.
The part where Indiana struggles is on consistent performances from their depth pieces. Take Brayden Risedorph for example, who actually started opening day on the bump for the Hoosiers. Since his impressive outing against Duke, Risedorph has regressed to an ERA of 10.80, and has given up the second most hits on the team across 16.2 innings. On Tuesday, Risedorph had six earned runs on four hits and 1.1 innings pitched.
Ryan Kraft has also taken a backseat compared to a career year last season. Kraft has a 6.75 ERA across 12 full innings of work. Kraft, a reigning Big Ten first team selection, had a 2.48 ERA at the conclusion of the 2023 season.
Although the performances have been subpar, it’s not all doom and gloom from the pitching staff. One name that sticks out so far from the bullpen has been Julian Tonghini. A transfer right-hander from Boston College, Tonghini has a 2.77 ERA in 13 innings on the mound. His best performance came against Baylor in late February, where he was credited with a win on 3.2 innings pitched with just one hit. Ethan Phillips, Ty Rybarczyk, and Jack Moffitt have also had decent starts on the season, but are still a few steps away from becoming consistent arms.
Connor Foley is the Saturday starter, no question, but it’s finding a consistent arm that can give you five or more innings on Fridays in order to save the depth for a Sunday bullpen-heavy strategy.
At the plate, the Hoosiers are starting to return to their offensive powerhouse form of last season.
Leading the way with little surprise and no introduction is the 2023 Big Ten Freshman of the Year in Devin Taylor. Taylor is hitting .398 with a 1.054 OPS so far in 20 games.
Taylor’s sophomore campaign has been nothing short of impressive. He is the hit leader so far for the Hoosiers with 33, even with one game spent on the bench. With four homers an 19 RBI’s on the year already, Taylor is making an early case for Big Ten Player of the Year, and putting his name in the conversation to be recognized nationally at the season’s end.
It’s not just Taylor who Indiana has rolling, though. Brock Tibbitts has been equally impressive playing both catcher and first for the Hoosiers. Tibbitts is also making a first-team run similar to Taylor, batting .361 with a team-leading 24 RBI’s so far on the year.
Also making a big sophomore jump has been Tyler Cerny, who falls just one hit away from tying Taylor at the top. Cerny’s average sits at .352 on the year with a team-leading 12 extra base hits. Cerny’s only regression has been on defense, as he has two more errors on the year compared to last already. Veterans such as Josh Pyne, Nick Mitchell, Carter Mathison and Morgan Colopy have all had their moments as well.
The only question mark that could still remain for Indiana is the spot at second. Houston transfer Brandon Burckel started the season at second base, and has the most starts at the position with 15. However, it has been the freshman Jasen Oliver taking over for the Hoosiers recently, as he has started the last five games at the spot. He has a .222 average across 18 at-bats.
It seems that Oliver will likely remain at second for the time being. As for Indiana’s issues on the offensive side, it has been stranding runners on base. This past weekend in each of their games against Belmont, Indiana had double-digit totals of runners left on base, and they still managed to win two of those games.
If they can start driving in more runs, the Hoosiers could be the most dangerous offensive team in the conference. However, much work needs to be done if they want to contend in postseason play.
Indiana kicks off their Big Ten season with a weekend series hosting Illinois starting on Friday at 6:00 PM eastern.
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