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IU Baseball Wins Big Ten Title Outright With 8-1 Win at Ohio State
COLUMBUS,
Ohio - For the first time since 1932, Indiana won the outright Big Ten
baseball title by clinically dispatching Ohio State, 8-1, on the
road. The Hoosiers (40-13, 17-7), handled the Buckeyes (34-21,
15-9) behind a masterful pitching performance from Kyle Hart and strong
offensive production out of the gate.
It is the
fifth time the Hoosiers have won the regular season Big Ten title and
just the third time they have won it outright (1925, 1932, 2013). They
were co-champions is 1938 and 1949.
Indiana got it rolling early
by touching up Ohio State starter Jeron Long for two runs in the first
inning on a double by senior Michael Basil. Ohio State countered
with their only run of the game in the bottom of the first, after Kyle
Hart walked Joe Ciamacco and yielded a double to Kirby Pellant.
The
Hoosiers kept their foot on the gas in the second inning behind an RBI
single from Kyle Schwarber and a two-run double by Sam Travis.
The Hoosiers tacked on another run in the third as Casey Smith singled
home Basil to make it 6-1 Hoosiers.
Kyle Hart
settled in from there, going 8.1 innings and allowing just one run and
four hits to advance his record to 8-2 on the season. The
Hoosiers tacked on an insurance run in the eighth as Nick Ramos scored
Basil from third on a sacrifice fly after Basil doubled earlier in the
inning.
A monster opposite field solo home run
into the wind by Schwarber put the finishing touch on a superb
offensive effort by the Hoosiers at Bill Davis Stadium and gave Indiana
an 8-1 lead heading into the bottom of the ninth. Scott Effross
relieved Hart to record the final two outs and secure Indiana’s first
outright regular season title since 1932.
The Hoosiers will be
the No. 1 seed at next week’s Big Ten Tournament at Target Field in
Minneapolis. The Hoosiers will play at 7:05 CT/8:05 ET on
Thursday and all games will be carried on the Big Ten Network.
Notes:
- Indiana reaches 40 wins in a season for the first time since 1996
-Kyle Schwarber hit his Big Ten leading 14th home run of the season.
- Indiana's 40 wins are the most ever over Division-I opponents in school history (previous record was 33)
-IU has recorded a +183 run margin in 53 games
-All three IU starting pitchers went at least 8.0 innings this week against Ohio State
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