11 Innings, One Win for IU at San Diego
SAN
DIEGO, Calif. - Indiana Baseball picked up a hard-fought, 11-inning
victory over San Diego (14-5) on Wednesday. There were four lead
changes and four tied scores in the see-saw battle. Sophomore reliever
Matt Dearden closed the door for IU, allowing just one hit over the
final three innings of the ballgame. Dearden has now made
a team-high nine appearances on the season, posting a 1.20 ERA through
15.0 IP while holding the opposition to a .218 batting average. His
three-inning effort on Wednesday earned him the ‘W.’ At
the dish, six different Hoosiers garnered a total of nine hits, led by
Justin Cureton, Dustin DeMuth and Dillon Dooney; each connecting on a
pair of base knocks. Of the 20 combined hits in the game, only
two went for extra bases; doubles for Sam Travis and DeMuth. Most
importantly, the Hoosiers committed no defensive errors. Unearned runs
had been an issue during the spring break trip prior to Wednesday’s win. Batting
in the two-hole, DeMuth cranked a ball deep into center field for a
first-inning triple. He then trekked the final 90 feet on a wild pitch
to put IU ahead, 1-0. A double by Travis later in the opening frame
drove in a second Hoosier run. After USD plated a run of
their own in the bottom of the first, the Hoosiers came right back with
two more tallies in the top of the second. The pendulum would swing
back in favor of the Toreros though as San Diego notched two runs in
both the fourth and fifth innings to surpass IU, 5-4. Dooney
pushed a single into right center for Indiana’s first base runner of
the sixth. Back-to-back HBPs then loaded the bases for Chris Sujka.
Though Sujka didn’t record a hit, he added to his team-leading RBI
total (16) by rolling a groundball to the shortstop and beating out the
double play attempt; allowing Dooney to even the score at 5-5. Though
Indiana’s final two runs of the game are marked as ‘unearned’ in the
box score, DeMuth certainly earned the go-ahead run in the top of the
seventh. Eventually advancing to third after reaching on an error,
DeMuth took off with two outs on the scoreboard. The LaPorte, Ind.,
native did his best Benny “The Jet” Rodriguez (see: The Sandlot)
impression, stealing home to surge IU back in the lead. Back-and-forth
continued in the eighth as USD knotted it back up at 6-6. Dearden took
his place on the mound to start the ninth, however, essentially sealing
the deal. Indiana posted 1-2-3 innings in the ninth and
10th innings before finally ending the game with a run in the 11th.
Consecutive two-out singles by Sujka and Cureton put runners on the
corners. Subsequently, a DeMuth groundball gobbled up the shortstop and
Sujka came home with the eventual game-winning run. The
Cream and Crimson wrap up Spring Break ’12 with a three-game series at
Loyola Marymount, starting on Thursday. IUHoosiers.com will be
providing live stats and an audio broadcast for all games this season.
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