IU Splits Double Dip at Georgia Southern
STATESBORO,
Ga. - Game One took three days to complete thanks to Mother Nature and
didn’t go well for IU before the Hoosiers (3-2) evened the trip to
Georgia State with an 11-5 victory over the Eagles (4-2) in Game Two. A
scheduled third game to the series had to be cancelled after a pair of
suspensions stretched out the opener over a three-day span.
GAME TWO RECAP Potent
bats and a combined effort by the Hoosier pitching staff secured an
11-5 win and a split of the weather-shortened series against the
Georgia Southern Eagles. Michael Basil led the charge
offensively for Indiana, going 3-for-3 with three runs batted in and
two walks. He hit a towering solo home run to left in the second and
added a two-run double off the top of the left-center field wall in the
eighth. Kyle Schwarber and Scott Donley each launched solo shots in the
sixth inning, extending the IU lead at the time to five scores. Kyle
Hart went four solid innings surrendering only two hits, three runs
(zero earned), and four walks (one intentional). Scott Effross came in
to relieve him and did what the Hoosier bullpen has done for the most
part this season … hold the lead. He gave up just three hits, two runs
(one earned) in four and a third innings of work. Luke Harrison came in
to get the final out of the game on a groundout to short. A
few errors crept up on the Hoosiers this weekend. A dropped putout led
to an unearned run for the Eagles in the first. A throwing error
then allowed a runner to reach second base in the sixth and eventually
score to cut the deficit to 8-4. The Hoosiers didn’t let the sloppy
play affect them, though, as they tacked on three more runs to keep the
lead safe. The Eagles tacked on one run in the ninth on a tough-luck triple on a ball lost in the sun by Justin Cureton. Indiana
hopes for better weather and more victories next weekend when they
travel to Myrtle Beach, S.C. IU will take on West Virginia, Costal
Carolina, and UMBC over the weekend.
GAME ONE RECAP A
three-day, twice-suspended affair saw the Hoosiers drop game one to
Georgia Southern 12-7. Dense fog caused Friday’s game to be halted in
the top of the third before lightning and rain suspended the game again
on Saturday in the top of the fourth. Georgia Southern
jumped ahead 5-0 in the first two innings on Friday. Joey DeNato
pitched both innings, giving up five runs, only two of them earned with
the help of three IU throwing errors. An inning and a
third was played Saturday. Will Coursen-Carr pitched a scoreless third
before Schwarber led off the fourth with a single. Lightning and rain
then suspended play once again. The Hoosiers came out with
energy on Sunday morning. A Basil RBI-triple to deep right scored
Schwarber, who stole second. Dustin DeMuth then blooped an RBI-double
to left field to make it a 5-2 game after four innings. The
long ball bit the pitching staff midway through the game. After a
scoreless fourth, IU surrendered a two-run homerun in the fifth and a
three-run home run in the sixth to make it 7-2. Back-to-back-to-back
solo homeruns later in the contest extended Georgia Southern’s lead to
12-2. The final two innings saw Indiana make a late rally.
Casey Smith hit an RBI-single to center and Trace Knoblauch drew a
bases loaded walk to cut the deficit to 12-4 in the eighth. In the
ninth, Chris Sujka scored on a wild pitch and Smith connected on
another RBI-single to make it 12-6. DeMuth added a sac fly to right
center to make it 12-7 before the Eagles closed out the win.
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