Indiana baseball left itself too much work to do.
The Hoosiers fell behind No. 1 overall seed Tennessee and allowed the score to become too lopsided to overcome in Saturday’s NCAA regional game. The Volunteers rolled to a 12-6 victory at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, putting themselves in the regional final.
IU will play Southern Miss Sunday at noon ET in an elimination game on ESPN Plus. The winner of the game will have a doubleheader and take on Tennessee at 7 p.m. The Volunteers would win the regional with a win in that game, but the teams would play again on Monday if IU or Southern Miss won.
UT’s prolific offense took off in the second inning Saturday against IU right-hander Connor Foley. Freshman Dean Curley hit a two-run home run to center field to put the Volunteers in front, and junior Christian Moore hit a two-run shot of his own three batters later to double the lead.
It got worse in the third inning. Foley loaded the bases and walked in a run, before head coach Jeff Mercer pulled him for left-hander Ryan Kraft. Tennessee junior Billy Amick, only the second batter Kraft faced, broke the game wide open with a grand slam to left field. That made it 9-0 before IU got through the third inning.
Foley’s command got away from him after the first inning — he issued seven walks in just 2 ⅓ innings, and six of those free passes came in the second and third frames. The sophomore was charged with eight earned runs on four hits and one hit batsman, in addition to the walks, with two wild pitches, a balk, and two strikeouts.
The Volunteers tacked on insurance runs in the fourth and fifth innings, which proved useful as Indiana’s offense didn’t go down quietly. The Hoosiers totaled 11 hits as a team — UT compiled 13. IU answered the grand slam with a three-run home run in the bottom of the third by standout sophomore outfielder Devin Taylor, who’s projected as a potential first-round pick in the 2025 MLB Draft.
Indiana had multiple other chance to make significant cuts into Tennessee’s lead, but couldn’t take full advantage. IU scored one in the fourth, on an RBI double by junior outfielder Carter Mathison, but left the bases loaded. The Hoosiers left multiple runners on base in four innings. They did force Tennessee to use five pitchers, despite the large lead it had for most of the game.
IU was able to get through the game using four pitchers — Kraft and sophomore right-hander Ethan Phillips threw 1 ⅔ innings in relief, and graduate student right-hander Ty Rybarczyk allowed just one hit in the final 3 ⅓ innings.
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