Tracy Smith led IU baseball to the College World Series in 2013.
But on Thursday, Smith was in Bloomington as the head coach of Michigan, trying to keep the Hoosiers out of the postseason altogether.
Instead, Indiana and their former head coach split a doubleheader at Bart Kaufman Field.
The win by the Hoosiers was enough for them to clinch an 11th straight trip to the Big Ten Tournament. That’s the longest active streak in the league, and one that dates back to Smith’s time at Indiana.
Michigan won the first contest on Thursday afternoon 3-2, and the Hoosiers responded with an 11-2 win in the second game. IU’s Devin Taylor hit his Big Ten best 16th home run as part of the game two outburst.
With the earlier loss, however, Indiana was eliminated from contention for the Big Ten regular season crown.
Indiana (29-22-1, 14-9) and Michigan will play the series finale on Saturday in Bloomington. The Big Ten Tournament begins next week in Omaha. Between the regular season finale on Saturday and next week in Omaha, the Hoosiers will likely need to win a few more games to keep their NCAA Tournament hopes alive.
It was Smith’s first return trip to Indiana as an opposing head coach.
A native of Kentland, Indiana, Smith earned National Coach of the Year and Big Ten Coach of the Year honors in 2013 after leading Indiana to the school’s only College World Series appearance in a 49-win campaign. The Hoosiers followed that performance with 44 victories in 2014 before Smith moved west to Arizona State.
In guiding Indiana to consecutive 40-win seasons in his final two campaigns in Bloomington, Smith secured back-to-back Big Ten championships for the first time in school history. The Hoosier’s title in 2013 was the school’s first since 1949 and its first outright title since 1932 en route to the No. 4 national seed, the first national seed in Big Ten history.
Smith mentored two Big Ten Players of the Year, three Big Ten Pitchers of the Year, and a pair of Big Ten Freshman of the Year in his time at Indiana.
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