Indiana Wins Regional Opener, 7-1
Hart controls the mound and Indiana hits 13 times in win.
NASHVILLE -- Indiana opened the 2015 NCAA Baseball Championship with a 7-1 win vs. No. 2 seed Radford in the first game of the Nashville Regional on Friday afternoon at Hawkins Field.
IU advances to Saturday's 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT game and will play the winner of Friday's Vanderbilt-Lipscomb duel. The game will be streamed on ESPN3. National TV designations will be made later Friday.
Junior LHP
Kyle Hart was tremendous in his first NCAA postseason start, tossing a season-high 7.0 innings, striking out a 2015-best six and giving up just one unearned run to earn his fifth win of the season.
"Kyle is the epitome of our team a little bit," head coach
Chris Lemonis said. "We don't really have a ton of superstars he's just, he pitches very gritty and never gives in. So, I think he helped a little bit when he came back and got in the mix for us is when we kind of took off as a team. A lot of his personality has rubbed off on our whole ball club."
The Hoosier bats were equally impressive, as Indiana hit 13 times led by two each from
Craig Dedelow,
Scott Donley,
Brad Hartong,
Nick Ramos and
Logan Sowers.
Hartong's best play, however, came in a game-turning first inning triple play. Radford led off with two innings in the bottom of the first before Indiana turned a jaw-dropping
2-6-2 triple play started with Hart's first strikeout.
Indiana struck first in the top of the third off of Rodrigue's seventh triple of the season and Hartong's RBI single.
A Dedelow single, Wilhite 2-RBI double and Ramos RBI triple made it 4-0 in the fourth, as Hart followed it up with three consecutive 1-2-3 innings and the Hoosiers maintained their lead until the seventh.
IU hit five times and scored three runs in the seventh frame, including a two-run home run from Dedelow, marking his team-best seventh in 2015.
Radford's lone run came in the bottom of the stanza, but it was too little too late for the higher seed.
UP NEXT
Indiana advances in the winner's bracket of the Nashville Regional and will play the winner of No. 1 seed Vanderbilt and No. 4 Lipscomb on Saturday, May 30, at 8 p.m. ET/7 p.m. CT (TV: TBD).
Vanderbilt and Lipscomb face off on Friday at 8 p.m. ET (ESPN3).
TEAM NOTES
••• Indiana's win sets the Hoosiers up for a Saturday evening 8 p.m. ET NCAA Regional contest at Hawkins Field. IU will play the winner of Vanderbilt and Lipscomb. The game can be viewed on ESPN3 and television designations will be made later on Friday depending on matchups.
••• Overall, IU has won nine of its last 11 games and 12 of its last 15.
••• In the NCAA Tournament, Indiana is 10-8 all-time and won nine of its last 13 postseason games. IU is 3-3 in NCAA Tournament openers and 7-6 in NCAA Regional contests.
••• Indiana is 12-3 in the month of May in 2015 and 36-10 since 2013. IU has won 29 of its last 33 games in the month.
••• IU's win snapped a 15-game Radford winning streak, which was tied for the second-longest in the nation coming in.
••• Indiana is 25-8 when scoring first and has won nine straight games in such situations.
••• The Hoosiers have gone without an error 17 times (12-5) this season and have committed one error or less on 38 occasions (25-13). IU has committed zero errors in four of the last five games.
••• IU recorded 12 hits, marking the 31st time with 10 or more this season and the 10th game in the last 17 that the Hoosiers have reached double-figures.
••• Indiana received multi-hit games from
Craig Dedelow,
Brad Hartong,
Nick Ramos and
Logan Sowers -- all with two.
INDIVIDUAL NOTES
••• Junior LHP
Kyle Hart improved to 5-0 this season, winning his team-high fifth game in his first-ever NCAA Tournament appearance. Hart tossed seven innings, giving up one unearned run. Hart has gone 23.2 consecutive innings without giving up an earned run.
••• In a season-high 7.0 innings pitched, Hart finished with a season-high six strikeouts. Hart faced 24 batters and threw a first-pitch strike to 17 of them.
••• Senior 2B
Casey Rodrigue recorded his team-high seventh triple of the season, tied for the eighth-most by a Hoosier in a single season all-time. Rodrigue is the first Hoosier with seven triples in a season since
Andrew Means tallied eight in 2008.
••• Rodrigue owns a hit in 22 of his last 27 games.
••• Sophomore OF
Craig Dedelow blasted his team-high seventh home run of the season, notched his team-high 24th multi-hit game of 2015 and leads Indiana with 74 hits this season. Dedelow has a hit in 16 of the last 20 games.
••• Dedelow's ninth multi-RBI game ties him for the Hoosier lead this season with
Scott Donley and
Logan Sowers.
••• Senior C
Brad Hartong maintained IU's longest current hit streak with a hit in the 11th straight game. His 17-game reached base streak is the longest by a Hoosier this year. Hartong is second for IU with 22 multi-hit games and has two or more hits in seven of IU's last 10 games.
••• Freshman OF
Logan Sowers owns a hit in eight of the last 10 games, tying for the IU lead with a pair.
••• Senior DH
Scott Donley tallied two hits and owns at least one in 13 of the last 16 and 28 of the last 33 games. Donley now has 19 multi-hit games in 2015 and 70 in his career.
••• Junior SS
Nick Ramos recorded his second multi-hit game in IU's last three outings, his eighth of the season.
••• Junior 3B
Brian Wilhite has registered a hit in seven of the last nine games and tied for IU's lead with a pair of RBI today. Six of Wilhite's 14 runs batted in have come in the last seven games.
••• Sophomore 1B
Austin Cangelosi has a hit in 10 of his last 13 appearances.
INDIANA QUOTES
Head Coach Chris Lemonis
Opening Statement:
"Great game, I thought we got a great start from
Kyle Hart, which we've gotten the last couple of weeks which makes it easier to play. We've been practicing that triple play for the last couple of weeks, so it was nice to see it worked out in the first, but it really helped diffuse the moment. I think when you get that momentum it takes some pressure off. We came right back in and relaxed and played ball, which was huge for us. I'm looking forward to tomorrow."
On the performance of Starting Pitcher Kyle Hart:
"Kyle is the epitome of our team a little bit. We don't really have a ton of superstars he's just, he pitches very gritty and never gives in. So, I think he helped a little bit when he came back and got in the mix for us is when we kind of took off as a team. A lot of his personality has rubbed off on our whole ball club."
On Hart's slow start to this game:
"He has been a slow starter for sure. I think maybe just getting the feel, when you are a feel pitcher with a changeup and a two-seam fastball; pitching in and out he probably just needs to get his rhythm going a little bit. I wish he would start a little bit quicker but it makes it kind of exciting, but he has always fought through it and gives us a chance. As you said after usually the 3rd, 4th, 5th inning that's the sign of a great pitcher when he really settles in and it is tough to get to him"
On the approach for the hitters against Radford Starter Michael Boyle:
"I just think we got some clutch hits. I think that's when we had him out there we got some clutch hits, and that's postseason baseball. I thought the double by Wilhite the triple by Ramos, and then it was a close game. The big swing by
Craig Dedelow really opened it up, later in the game, but you tip your hat to their starter. That's a quality left hander, and we talked about it this morning everybody is facing someone like that right now. That guy, Michael Boyle, he really competed."
On how important it is for this team to have postseason experience coming into this Regional:
"It's just huge for any postseason program. I mean, we talk about it a lot and we take a lot of pride in being a postseason program.
Casey Rodrigue hit the pop up and gets to third, and even in the dugout I'm joking that we are going to be talking to our future teams about
Casey Rodrigue and how hard he hustled in the postseason. It's the experiences you get, and the more we do it the more comfortable we are, and it rubs off to our younger kids like
Logan Sowers or Isaiah Pasteure. I think that is what has happened with this ball club. They just expect it and we practice and play for it all year, and they were able to come out and play for it today."
LHP Kyle Hart
On triple play and whether it helped ease his start:"That was probably the luckiest play I've been a part of, ever seen. That totally revamped my start and I don't think I would have had the type of success I had without that play."
"I was reading the runner at first. So when he didn't go, I threw the pitch and struck the kid out. I heard runner and I knew he was absolutely canned because he didn't get a good jump. So I knew we were getting two outs. I looked over and that guy's halfway down the line and seemed like a miscue for him. Fortunate that Ramos made that great pick and was able to fire home."
Catcher Brad Hartong
On how the triple play unfolded from his point of view:
"At first, I tried to get the strike and then I saw strike three. I knew I just had to put a good throw on to get the lead runner. And good thing Ramos helped me out there with that pick. I look down the line and I see the runner coming home and we got that guy. And it was like we're out of the first, let's go play some ball."
On the performance from Hart:
"Since he's been back starting the weekend, he's just throwing his change-up for strikes at any point in the count. He's locating both sides of the plate and throwing his curveball and slider for strikes. When he's ahead of a guy, he can throw a little more off the plate. But command and poise, you just see that. He doesn't really get rattled. We know he's not going to give up the big inning."
Infielder Brian Wilhite
On seizing opportunity to play and recent at bat performance:
"Coming off my injury, I've been kind of getting my feet underneath me. I'm kind of feel like I was earlier in the season. But honestly, I don't know. I've never hit like this and it's nothing exceptional. I've always been more of a defensive guy. So for me, it's just a huge boost especially on the defensive end when I can get quality at bats. It's definitely been a big lift for me."
Go Hoosiers!
Link has video and boxscore link:
http://www.iuhoosiers.com/sports/m-basebl/recaps/052915aaa.html
