Iowa @ IU, Game 1: Iowa pitching dominates IU in a 7-1 loss...

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It's LHP Ben Seiler on the mound with an ERA of 6.63 in 19 IP. Serruto is behind the plate with Mathison the DH today. On the season, Seiler has given up six doubles but no triples or homers so far.

For Iowa, it's RHP Brody Brecht on the mound with an ERA of 2.67 in 33.2 IP and he leads the B1G in strikeouts with 59. Brecht has given up three doubles, no triples, and one homer on the season so far.

It's 57 degrees to start the game with a light breeze so weather will not be a factor today and probably for the rest of the weekend.

1st Inning:

T1st:

Seiler gets the leadoff hitter on a GO. Seiler gets the next batter on a K with a foul tip into Serruto's glove. Seiler then hit a batter to put a runner on with two outs.

After getting the first two batters, Seiler put runners on the corners with the hit batter and now a single that got through the infield. Another single scored a run with the hit batter crossing the plate.

Serruto threw out a runner at 2nd on an attempted steal to retire the side with Iowa scoring a run after have two outs.

In a scoring change, they ruled the 1st single in the inning through the 3B area was actually an error on Pyne so the run scored was unearned.

B1st:

Glasser led off with a walk on a 3-1 count. Whalen K'd for the first out. Taylor grounded out moving Glasser to 2nd with two outs. Another groundout by Tibbitts ended the inning.

Iowa 1 IU 0

 

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2nd Inning:

T2nd:

The leadoff hitter lined out to Seiler. A single put a runner on with one out. On another attempted steal, Serruto nailed the runner for his 2nd runner caught stealing in the game. A GO retired the side.

B2nd:

It's the 5-7 hitters up with Mathison leading off. Mathison went down swinging for the first out. Pyne grounded out, and Jesse K'd as they went down in order to end the inning.

Iowa 1 IU 0

 

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3rd Inning:

T3rd:

It's the 9, 1, and 2 hitters up. Seiler gets the leadoff hitter on a K and it's the top of the order up. A flyout results in the 2nd out. A two-out single puts a runner on. A ball hit to the wall in CF was caught by Whalen to retire the side.

B3rd:

It's the 8, 9, and 1 hitters up for IU and IU is still looking for their first hit. Cerny K'd to lead off for Brecht's 4th K of the game. A GO brought up the top of the order with two outs. Another GO ended the inning:

Iowa 1 IU 0

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

Well Mercer strays into total idiot territory yet again. I had zero problem going with Seiler today and he gave you three decent innings which is more than usual Friday. However, when you remove him in a jam in the fourth bring in one of your good bullpen arms and not Brooks Ey who has been terrible. Predictably he surrenders two and now IU has almost no chance down 3-0 to the best pitcher in the league.

All along I had IU losing tonight and likely winning Saturday and Sunday given the Hawkeyes have less depth with their good arms but still would have liked to have seen Hoosiers put their best foot forward with pitching down 1-0 and still in game.

 

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4th Inning:

T4th:

Seiler faced the 4-6 hitters. Seiler K'd the leadoff hitter but then walked the next batter to put a runner on with one out. Seiler then hit a batter to put two on with one out, and it was Seiler's 2nd hit batter of the game.

Mercer went to the bullpen to bring in RHP Brooks Ey with an ERA of 12.27 in 7.1 IP, and Ey pitched two pretty good innings in his last time out against Indiana State.

Ey faced the bottom of the order with two on and one out. Ey gave up a single to load the bases with one out.

Another single though the infield scored two runs to make it 3-0 Iowa with runners on 1st and 2nd and one out.

Ey got a K for the 2nd out with two on and the top of the order up.

Ey then walked the bases loaded on four pitches. A GO retired the side. Ey gave up the two singles to score the two runs but they were charged to Seiler.

B4th:

It's the 2 thru 4 hitters up for IU. Whalen lined out to 2B for the first out.

Taylor then singled for IU's first hit of the game to put a runner on with one out.

Tibbitts walked to put runners on 1st and 2nd with one out.

Mathison grounded out to move the runners to 2nd and 3rd and two outs.

Pyne popped out to CF to end the inning.

IU has now gone 13 straight innings without scoring a run after being shutout by ISU.

Iowa 3 IU 0

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

Now throw your worst arms. Clearly Mercer had no interest in winning for second straight game with the way he has used pitchers. Saving them for this weekend better work now with IU having the far better pitchers the rest of weekend in must win games.

Threw away two straight winnable games though with the pitching decisions. Not sure it would have made a difference tonight with Brecht once Pyne made the error but this is why I am so critical of Mercer unable to find a true ace since Kyle Hart graduated. It feels like a broken record and now you don't even have guys who can eat innings.

 

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5th Inning:

T5th:

Facing the 3-5 hitters, Ey gave up a leadoff double and then a flyout moved the runner to 3rd with one out. A GO brought in the runner from 3rd with two outs and the bases empty. A flyout retired the side.

B5th:

It's the bottom of the order up for IU.

Jessee walked to lead off. Cerny K'd and Serruto hit into a DP to end the inning as IU's scoreless streak reached 14 innings straight.

Iowa 4 IU 0

 

[Orford]

Dude I think you are over estimating our pitching staff. We have 4-6 reliable arms the rest look good one game and bad the next. To boot our bats are doing their best to help Brecht get 7-8 innings.

 

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6trh Inning:

T6th:

It's the bottom of the order with Ey back out there and he gets the first out on a GO.

Ey then walked the next batter to put a runner on with one out.

A DP retired the side.

B6th:

It's the top of the order up for IU and that 4-0 lead seems like a 14-0 lead with Iowa's starter dominating our hitters.

Glasser K'd and Brecht is at 76 pitches and doesn't look like he's tiring any and is in a rhythm. Whalen and Taylor both grounded out to end the inning with IU's scoreless streak now at 15 innings.

Iowa 4 IU 0

 

[Charlesroast]

Now throw your worst arms. Clearly Mercer had no interest in winning for second straight game with the way he has used pitchers. Saving them for this weekend better work now with IU having the far better pitchers the rest of weekend in must win games.

Threw away two straight winnable games though with the pitching decisions. Not sure it would have made a difference tonight with Brecht once Pyne made the error but this is why I am so critical of Mercer unable to find a true ace since Kyle Hart graduated. It feels like a broken record and now you don't even have guys who can eat innings.

Dude do you think Coach Lemonis is going to survive this season?

 

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7th Inning:

T7th:

Mercer goes to RHP Connor Foley with an ERA of 6.48 in 8.1 IP.

Facing the top of the order, Foley K'd the first two hitters, but then gives up a two-run solo homer to make it 5-0. A pop up to RF retired the side.

B7th:

It's the 4-6 hitters up for IU and Tibbitts walked to leadoff. A WP moved Tibbitts to 2nd with no outs.

A pop out to LF resulted in the 1st out with Tibbitts still at 2nd. Brecht is at 93 pitches and just threw a pitch at 97 mph.

Pyne was robbed of a hit on a diving catch in RF.

Jessee singled to score Tibbitts to end IU's scoreless streak at 15 innings. Cerny K'd to end the inning.

Iowa 5 IU 1

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

Game would have been tied now if Mercer had thrown his best arms like a normal manager when Seiler got in trouble. Brilliant managing of your pitching staff. Offense has been in tank last two games but that is because you have faced the two best arms team has seen so far. Tomorrow will tell if offense is in true funk but I doubt it.

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

Dude do you think Coach Lemonis is going to survive this season?

I don't care. Bring him back or better yet why didn't they bring back Tracy Smith when he was available. Now he will build Michigan into a power. If Lemonis is available to come back after this season do it after you were asleep at the wheel after Smith was available last year.

Time to get back to being serious about baseball and realize Glass made a terrible hire after two really good ones which happens. Now fix it. He made so man right decisions with Yeagley, Shonda Stanton (who is building a monster program legitimately), Teri Moren, and first two baseball coaches. This got the four top secondary sports into great position and I will be forever grateful for that.

Archie and Mercer though at end of tenure were misses which happens. However, you need to fix it and with Mercer it should have been done after last season following a horrid collapse in 2021 and a terrible 2022. He mismanaged the pitching staff in 2021 despite it being good (aka throwing Sommer your worst starter on Friday's), than hired the wrong pitching coach who ruined the staff and it got worse and is not much better this season.

 

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8th Inning:

T8th:

Mercer brought in RHP Aydan Decker-Petty with an ERA of 2.25 in 8 IP.

D-P gave up a single to the leadoff hitter with the 5-7 hitters up. He retired the next three batters to retire the side.

B8th:

Iowa brought in RHP Jacob Henderson with an ERA of 2.87 in 8.9 IP.

Colopy doubled as a pinch hitter for Serruto to lead off but then with the top of the order up, Glasser, Whalen, and Taylor all K'd to end the inning.

Iowa 5 IU 1

 

[Charlesroast]

Game would have been tied now if Mercer had thrown his best arms like a normal manager when Seiler got in trouble. Brilliant managing of your pitching staff. Offense has been in tank last two games but that is because you have faced the two best arms team has seen so far. Tomorrow will tell if offense is in true funk but I doubt it.

I don't care. Bring him back or better yet why didn't they bring back Tracy Smith when he was available. Now he will build Michigan into a power. If Lemonis is available to come back after this season do it after you were asleep at the wheel after Smith was available last year.

Time to get back to being serious about baseball and realize Glass made a terrible hire after two really good ones which happens. Now fix it. He made so man right decisions with Yeagley, Shonda Stanton (who is building a monster program legitimately), Teri Moren, and first two baseball coaches. This got the four top secondary sports into great position and I will be forever grateful for that.

Archie and Mercer though at end of tenure were misses which happens. However, you need to fix it and with Mercer it should have been done after last season following a horrid collapse in 2021 and a tribble 2022. He mismanaged the pitching staff in 2021 despite it being good (aka throwing Sommer your worst starter on Friday's), than hired the wrong pitching coach who ruined the staff and it got worse and is not much better this season.

You routinely hold him up as an example of what IU needs and he sets in arguably the best situation in college baseball and is on a 2-20 run in his league. Mercy ruled again today & his pitching staff is an absolute joke. But he did make it to regionals with mid level conference records at IU while B1G was enjoying the spoils of the Schwarber years with 5-6 teams getting in.

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

I don't care. Bring him back or better yet why didn't they bring back Tracy Smith when he was available. Now he will build Michigan into a power. If Lemonis is available to come back after this season do it after you were asleep at the wheel after Smith was available last year.

Time to get back to being serious about baseball and realize Glass made a terrible hire after two really good ones which happens. Now fix it. He made so man right decisions with Yeagley, Shonda Stanton (who is building a monster program legitimately), Teri Moren, and first two baseball coaches. This got the four top secondary sports into great position and I will be forever grateful for that.

Archie and Mercer though at end of tenure were misses which happens. However, you need to fix it and with Mercer it should have been done after last season following a horrid collapse in 2021 and a terrible 2022. He mismanaged the pitching staff in 2021 despite it being good (aka throwing Sommer your worst starter on Friday's), than hired the wrong pitching coach who ruined the staff and it got worse and is not much better this season.

Dumb. You have a kid on the team or something? You sound like a travel ball dad. Nothing but criticism

 

[kraft cheese+macaroni]

What’s the word on Ellis being MIA?

 

[Orford]

It’s him or matthison at dh either is a 1-2-3 strikeout or weak contact most of the time. Both can only hit fb

 

[ptrich]

9th Inning:

T9th:

With D-P back out on the mound, they got the leadoff hitter on a GO, but Pyne's 2nd error of the game allowed a hitter to reach 2nd with one out.

D-P then hit a batter and then walked the bases loaded with one out.

Mercer went to the bullpen to bring in RHP Cooper Katskee with an ERA of 9.82 in 7.1 IP to face the No. 4 hitter.

Katskee gave up a hard hit on his very first pitch to score two runs on a double, with runners on 2nd and 3rd with still one out.

Katskee then got a K and a GO to retire the side.

B9th:

Tibbitts leads off with a K. Mathison then doubled to put a runner in scoring position with one out.

Pyne and Jessee both K'd to end the game and the Iowa reliever recorded all six outs in the last two innings on strikeouts.

Iowa 7 IU 1 (Final)

 

[ptrich]

One could come to the conclusion that once Mercer saw that Iowa pitcher Brecht was not going to have an off game and was going to dominate our hitters that he came to the conclusion early on he was going to save pitching for the back two games. Iowa's next two starters have higher ERAs with tomorrow's starter having an ERA of 6.95 and Sunday's starter at 5.52.

Iowa's Brecht, who is one of the top pitchers in the B1G if not the best pitcher, totally dominated IU hitting, and while not getting as many Ks as he normally does, he gave up just 2 hits over 7 IP and just one earned run. When Iowa relieved him, they brought in another pitcher with an ERA similar to Brecht's and all six outs recorded over the last two innings were strikeouts.

Counting the Indiana State game, IU had gone 15 straight innings without scoring a run before they got one in the 7th. IU has now scored just one run over the last 18 innings. They scored 8 runs in the 9th inning of the last PSU game.

There's no need to go over the hitting part of the game since IU had just four hits on the game. Mathison had a double and so did Colopy in a pinch hitting role in the 9th and that was the highlight of the game.

IU was 4 for 30 for a team BA of .133, while Iowa was 9 of 35 for a team BA of .257.
With runners on base, IU was 1 for 16 for a .063 average while Iowa was 4 for 16 for a .250 average.

IU had two errors both by Pyne while Iowa did not have an error.

There's also no need to go over the pitching except to say that Seiler did hold Iowa to just one run over the first three innings which was unearned in the 1st after an error, but things went south from that point on. Iowa just slowly built the lead, and it was not an insurmountable lead that couldn't easily be overcome, but with the way IU wasn't hitting Brecht, you just felt that IU had no chance to win this game.

 

[Dude Where Is My Car]

I admit tonight I was wrong. Mercer knew he could not win this game and saved his best arms which is probably the best move. Very hard to hit a guy who throws 101mph and has mowed down everyone this season. I still don't like Mercer and he needs to go or get much better pitching talent. He needs guys who can go head-to-head with arms like this but at least he basically admitted he has nothing on Friday's against elite pitchers which is an issue in of itself.

 

[ptrich]

Here's the link to the box score:

Baseball vs Iowa on 4/7/2023 - Box Score - Indiana University Athletics

The official box score of Baseball vs Iowa on 4/7/2023

iuhoosiers.com

Here's the game recap link:

Series Opening Setback - Indiana University Athletics

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. – One game does not make a series and the Indiana baseball program will look to bounce back from a series-opening 7-1 loss to Iowa on Fri...

iuhoosiers.com