With its season on the line, Indiana baseball suffered one of its worst pitching performances of the season.
The Hoosiers imploded very quickly in Sunday afternoon’s elimination game against Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles scored five runs in the top of the first inning and never looked back, steamrolling their way to a 15-3 victory at Lindsey Nelson Stadium in Knoxville, Tenn.
Southern Miss moves on to the regional final, beginning later this (Sunday) evening, needing to beat No. 1 overall seed Tennessee twice to advance. Indiana is eliminated with the loss.
IU sophomore right-hander Brayden Risedorph had a tough year, with a 7.52 ERA and a 1.65 WHIP entering Sunday. And he got in trouble right away against Southern Miss, giving up two runs before he recorded an out. The Golden Eagles batted around in the first inning and ran Risedorph’s pitch count over 50.
Head coach Jeff Mercer went to the bullpen in the second inning, and junior right-hander Julian Tonghini ran into more problems in the third. After stranding two baserunners in the second, Tonghini loaded the bases on two walks and a hit-by-pitch in the third. Mercer inserted sophomore right-hander Aidan Decker-Petty, who allowed all three inherited runners to score and gave up three more earned runs. USM tacked on four more runs in the next frame off Decker-Petty and redshirt sophomore left-hander Brandon Keyster to make it 15 runs across just four innings.
Meanwhile, IU’s offense couldn’t get much going against Southern Miss right-hander Colby Allen, who allowed just one earned run on four hits, two walks, and one hit batsman with eight strikeouts in seven innings of work. The lone run against Allen came on a long home run by standout sophomore outfielder Devin Taylor. The Hoosiers got a lucky bounce for their other two runs, on a two-run home run by freshman infielder Jasen Oliver that hit off USM right fielder Nick Monistere’s glove and over the wall.
Indiana will head into the offseason after a second straight NCAA Tournament appearance, looking to figure out how to make the next step as a program. This year’s squad got into the tournament as a bubble team that went through a tough March marred by injuries and subpar play but rebounded in the second half of the season.
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