IU to take on two ranked teams right out of the gate...

[ptrich]

IU's first two opponents in Duke and Coastal Carolina are in the first two preseason polls that have come out. D1Baseball posted their preseason top 25 today, and they have Duke at No. 12 while Perfect Game's preseason poll has them a No. 23. Coastal Carolina came in at No. 18 in D1's poll while they were No. 25 in the Perfect Game poll.

Iowa is No. 20 in the D1 poll while they ended up No. 16 in the Perfect Game poll and the Hawkeyes were the only B1G team in those polls.

Perfect Game had IU just outside the top 25 at No. 27 while the D1 poll didn't go past the top 25. Iowa's weekend pitching tandem of Brecht and Morgan is driving the early love for Iowa which was something I expected and I believe the B1G coaches preseason polling will reflect that also.

A good showing will get us off to a good start resume-wise and with the RPI.

 

[TomEric4756]

Yes, IU needs to split both those series and maybe win one of them … I think the batters should be up to the task.

A hot start from our pitchers would be golden.

 

[Bucket Getter]

Maybe I'm wrong on this, but doesn't it seem like our pitching has started off pretty rough and gotten better as the season goes on? Virtually the opposite of traditional baseball lore where pitching dominates early and hitters catch up with the warmer weather?

 

[TomEric4756]

Maybe I'm wrong on this, but doesn't it seem like our pitching has started off pretty rough and gotten better as the season goes on? Virtually the opposite of traditional baseball lore where pitching dominates early and hitters catch up with the warmer weather?

Yes pitchers and catchers still report for MLB camps a week early. I am hoping for something better this year.

 

[ptrich]

Maybe I'm wrong on this, but doesn't it seem like our pitching has started off pretty rough and gotten better as the season goes on? Virtually the opposite of traditional baseball lore where pitching dominates early and hitters catch up with the warmer weather?

It was a mixed bag against the warm weather teams we played that ended on Mar 5th last season.

We went 1-2 against Auburn, losing two games, 8-4 and 6-1, while winning the last game 11-2 where Sinnard was exceptional in the start. We went 1-2 at Texas and all three of the games were low scoring with Texas winning the first two, 4-2 and 5-2 while we won the last game, 4-2 where Sinnard, Cooper Hellman and Ryan Kraft pretty much shut down Texas hitting.

We didn't fare quite as well at the East Carolina tournament where we lost to the ranked host school, 17-4 and also to another ranked team in Long beach State, 10-4 while beating non warm weather Georgetown, 4-3, with Sinnard having another good outing.

All of IU's wins against the warm weather teams as well as Georgetown, were when Sinnard was the starter and IU went 3-6 against those teams.

 

[ptrich]

D1Baseball didn't include IU in their Top 25 poll, but they released a list of 15 teams that are right on the cusp of entering their poll. IU was among that list and they didn't rank those teams just outside of their poll. Just being on the outside of the preseason polls seems to be the preseason theme for IU this season.

Indiana​

The Hoosiers will have one of the premier offensive lineups in college baseball this spring. IU welcomes back sluggers such as Brock Tibbits, Devin Taylor and Tyler Cerny — all whom finished last season with some serious power production. As long as the pitching staff performs to a solid expectation level, the Hoosiers should rack up a lot of wins this spring and be in position to not only make the NCAA tournament, but to potentially host as well.

— Kendall Rogers