Indiana University Baseball battles Butler at Victory Field
Indiana University Baseball is back in action at 6:30 pm this evening when they face the Butler Bulldogs at Victory Field in Downtown Indianapolis. Indiana won Friday night 8-7 and 8-1 Saturday afternoon over Nebraska at Bart Kaufman Field before falling 19-7 Sunday afternoon to the Cornhuskers. Indiana is 16-23 on the season and got solid pitching starts from Jack Perkins and Bradley Brehmer over the weekend. Braydon Tucker Senior Right-Handed Pitcher from Northview HS in Brazil Indiana is the starter for this evening. Tucker has appeared in 14 games with 1 start. Tucker has pitched 30.1 innings this season with a 1-3 record. Rookie Josh Pyne is riding the longest reached base streak by an IU freshman in over a decade and is leading all Big Ten freshmen in RBIs (39). Freshman Carter Mathison became the fourth IU freshman to reach the 10-home run mark. The rookie joined the short list with his solo blast against Nebraska. Fellow freshman Brock Tibbitts can join Mathison with double-digit home runs to become the first rookie duo to hit 10-plus homers in the same season for the Cream and Crimson. Redshirt-junior Matthew Ellis continues to lead the Big Ten in home runs at 12 longballs on the season. The left-handed hitter has hit some mammoth home runs so far in 2022.
Butler enters the week with an 18-22-1 overall record and a 2-6-1 mark in the Big Ten after going 0-2-1 at St. John’s over the weekend. Travis Holt leads the team in batting average (.301), hits (49), runs scored (31) and doubles (8). He has started all 41 games at shortstop. Freshman lefty Cole McDaniel will get the start. He is 2-2 with a 6.03 ERA and a .338 batting average against this season. He has 21 strikeouts in 31 1/3 innings of work. Indiana and Butler will meet for the 125th time this evening. The Hoosiers own a 94-30 all-time edge in the series that dates back to 1896. IU won the first six games in the series and have met in each decade since the 1920s. The Hoosiers have won the only two neutral site meetings between the two programs in 1998 and 2016.
Indiana University Softball host archrival Purdue in doubleheader
Indiana University Softball will host arch rival Purdue this evening in a doubleheader at Andy Mohr Field. Game 1 will start at 5 pm with Game 2 to follow 25-30 minutes after the conclusion of Game 1. Indiana is 23-17 overall and 6-9 in the Big Ten. The Hoosiers dropped three games to Number 10 Northwestern. In the second game Indiana the Hoosiers had a 7-3 lead through four innings, but Northwestern won 13-8 in nine innings. In the final game of the series Indiana scored first and were tied 3-3 through four innings. Cora Bassett hit .545 for the series with six hits, including two doubles and a home run. Her slugging percentage for the series was 1.000 and her on base percentage was .615. Indiana has scored 74 runs this season with two out, including 11 games in which they have scored three or more runs with two outs. Cora Bassett is hitting .500 on the season with two outs. The Hoosiers have already surpassed their home run total from a season ago. Indiana has 49 home runs through 40 games this season. Last year the Hoosiers tallied 28 home runs in 44 games.
Purdue comes in with a 20-26 overall record and 3-11 mark in Big Ten games. Last time out they went 1-2 against Michigan State. The Boilermakers are hitting .258 as a team and are led by Rachel Becker who is hitting .411 with 51 hits. Purdue has used seven different pitchers this season with a combined era of 5.04. Alex Echazarreta and Brenna Smith have gotten the majority of the innings with 87.1 and 82.1 respectively. Purdue leads the all-time series 41-38. Last season the Hoosiers won three of four games in West Lafayette. Indiana has won seven of the last 10 games in the series.
Freshman and Lafayette Native Heather Johnson will face her hometown school for the first time tonight. Johnson graduated from McCutcheon HS. Junior Cora Bassett played at Purdue before transferring to IU. Bassett was a Second Team All-Big Ten in 2021 season, started all 32 games she appeared in, after 103 at-bats, the sophomore secured 15 runs on 32 hits and nine walks, 311 batting average and tallied 22 RBI and 10 doubles, Bassett amassed a six consecutive game hitting streak and reached base in eight straight games and recorded eight multi-hit games over the season.
Former IUMBB Players Parker Stewart and Michael Durr announce transfer destinations
Former Indiana University Men’s Basketball Players Parker Stewart and Michael Durr have announced their transfer destinations to finish up their college careers. Stewart announced he will transfer back to Tennessee-Martin and Durr will transfer to the University of Central Florida.
Stewart, a native of Union City, Tennessee, originally transferred to Indiana from UT Martin during the 2020-21 season under former head coach Archie Miller. Stewart’s late father, Anthony Stewart, was the head coach at UT Martin during Stewart’s previous stint with the Skyhawks. Stewart wears No. 45 in honor of his father, who wore the number during his own playing career at Mount Union. He led the Hoosiers in 3-point shot attempts with 135, 3-point shooting percentage with 39.3% and scored 6.2 points per game. Stewart played in 34 games and was a starter in 31. Stewart participated in the Hoosiers’ senior night stated his intentions to not return to Indiana on March 25, saying he would pursue opportunities in the transfer portal or professionally. He entered the transfer portal days later. Stewart started at the University of Pittsburgh before transferring to Tennessee-Martin.
Durr is going is going back to Florida to finish his career. The 7-foot center played in 30 games off the bench for the Hoosiers this past season. Durr averaged 1.5 points and 1.0 rebounds while shooting 73% from the free-throw line. An Atlanta native, Durr began his college career at UCF’s rival, South Florida, before transferring to Indiana. With the Bulls for three years, Durr started 85 of 87 games played. At the Tampa school, he averaged 6.7 points, 6.5 rebounds and 1 block. In his last season at USF in 2020-21, Durr started all 19 games and averaged a career-best 8.8 points and 7.9 rebounds. That year he finished fourth in the American Athletic Conference in rebounding and eighth in free-throw accuracy, shooting 79%. Durr is coming to UCF as a graduate transfer with one season of eligibility remaining. He can play right away for the Knights, which will be needed at center.
Ball State Men’s Volleyball wins MIVA Conference Tournament
For the first time in 20 years the Ball State men’s volleyball team (23-3) were crowned the Midwestern Intercollegiate Volleyball Association Tournament Champions after earning a thrilling 3-0 sweep over in-state and MIVA rival Purdue Fort Wayne (17-13) in Worthen Arena. In a hard-fought battle from both sides of the court, the Cardinals collective effort unhinged the Mastodons in the final set to win the match. Worthen Arena boar witness to the most electric atmosphere and amazing crowd turnout of the season in the thrilling championship.
It comes to no surprise that tonight was a success though as Ball State finished the night off with a .308 hitting percentage off a team total 48 kills. It was a nail biter in the first set as both teams traded leads. The set would go into an extra period in which the Cardinals came out on top, 28-26. After a rocky start for the Cardinals in the second set, a seven-point run to recapture the lead allowed the team the opportunity to settle back in and continue the powerful effort in the set. To finish off the Mastodons in the second set, senior outside attacker Kaleb Jenness and freshman middle blocker Vanis Buckholz partnered for a big block bringing the Cardinals to a 2-0 lead in the match. To establish the dominate lead in the third set, the Cardinals maintained a six-point run including a big block from graduate student middle blocker Will Hippe and Jenness to bring the lead to 20-13 and would go on to take the third frame, 25-16. Jenness led both the offensive and defensive efforts with 18 kills, five block assists, and a block solo while graduate student opposite Angelos Mandilaris followed closely behind with 14 kills and three block assists.
Ball State will return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2002 after being selected as the Number 2 seed and has earned the bye in next week’s upcoming tournament in Los Angeles, Calif. on the campus of UCLA at Pauley Pavilion. The Cardinals will face either Princeton, North Greenville, or a possible rematch against Hawai’i on Thursday, May 5 at 10:30 pm ET and can be watched live on NCAA.com. This will be Ball State’s 16th appearance at the NCAA Tournament.
Indianapolis Indians Coverage
Indians Begin Six Game Series at Iowa this evening
The Indianapolis Indians will begin a six game road series this evening when they take on the Iowa Cubs at Principial Park in Des Moines Iowa with first pitch scheduled for 7:38 pm Eastern Time. Both teams enter series with 9-8 record. The Indians split the six-game home series with the Columbus Clippers 3-3 and Iowa split a six-game series with the Louisville Bats 3-3 at home. The Teams will play Wednesday Afternoon at 1:08 pm, Thursday evening at 7:38 pm, Friday at 8:08 pm, Saturday at 7:08 pm and Sunday Afternoon at 2:08 pm and all times are Eastern.
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