Local Sports News: May 7, 2024

Indiana University Women’s Golf in 9th Place after Day 1 of the NCAA Regional in East Lansing
Indiana University Women’s Golf is in 9th place after the first round of the NCAA Regional at the Forest Akers West Golf Course in East Lansing Michigan. The Hoosiers finished with a team score of 295 which is seven over par. USC is in the lead with a seven under 281 followed by Pepperdine which is 2 strokes back of the leaders. Northwestern is in third place at 3 strokes back of the leader followed by Florida at 5 strokes back and Denver who is in fifth at nine strokes back. The top five teams advance to the NCAA Championships in Carlsbad California later this month. Indiana is four strokes back of the 6th place teams Oklahoma State and Michigan State and 3 strokes behind 8th place Kentucky. The Hoosiers are 3 strokes ahead of 10th place Augusta, 7 strokes ahead of Oakland and 22 ahead of last place Illinois State in the 12-team field. Bailey Shoemaker of USC is the individual leader at 65 and 7 under par which is two strokes ahead of second place Lion Higo of Pepperdine. Indiana’s Caroline Smith and Chole Johnson are tied for 19th at 72 even par. Round 2 will get underway at 8am this morning with the Hoosiers teeing off 9:10am and starting every 11 minutes till the fifth Hoosier tees off at 9:54am.

Indiana University Baseball stuns Purdue to win the series finale in West Lafayette
Down to its final two outs, on a day where every ball seemed to be caught by Purdue, the Indiana Baseball team (27-19-1, 12-6 B1G) produced a comeback for the ages to grab the series out of the grasps of its biggest rival. The Hoosiers’ 5-4 win in West Lafayette is the first series win away from home against the Boilermakers since 2002. A wild ninth inning, that featured three singles, three walks and a fielding error, saw the Hoosiers plate four and take a 5-4 lead. Redshirt freshman Jacob Vogel (W, 1-0) was flawless on the mound, closing out his four-inning day with a quick trip through the heart of the Purdue order in the bottom of the inning. Vogel, who had never pitched more than two innings in his career, piggybacked an incredible effort from sophomore Aydan Decker-Petty to hand the Hoosiers a combined 7.2 innings with just three hits and two runs allowed. Vogel earned the first win of his young career and finished off a fantastic weekend on the mound from IU’s staff.

Three times in the last month, IU has overcome a multi-run deficit in the ninth to either win or tie. IU was down two to Penn State (W, 10-9), three in the ninth at Ball State (T, 7-7) and three in the ninth at Purdue (W, 5-4) but flipped the switch in each ballgame. IU has won five-straight Big Ten series for the first time since 2019 and has won 11 of its last 14 conference contests. All 15 position players that traveled to West Lafayette were called upon in Sunday’s victory. Freshmen Andrew Wiggins and Cal Sefcik were asked to pinch hit while Hayden Carlson and TJ Schuyler entered to play as defensive replacements. Redshirt senior Morgan Colopy scored the game-winning run as a pinch runner and Brandon Burckel closed out the ninth at second base. A magical comeback keeps IU’s chances at a Big Ten title in play. IU finishes the weekend in a three-way tie for second with Purdue and Nebraska. Illinois holds a one-game lead with six contests to play. The Hoosiers head to Nebraska next weekend while Purdue goes to Michigan and Illinois hosts Iowa.

Indiana University Football adds UMass Transfer LB Nahji Logan
UMass transfer linebacker Nahji Logan announced he has committed to IU on his social media accounts. The Yeadon, Pa. product was in Bloomington for a visit last week. Logan was named to the College Football Network All-Independent Defense Team (Second Team – LB) in 2023. He competed in all 12 games for the Minutemen, totaling a team-leading 60 tackles (30 solo, 30 assisted), four tackles for loss for 11 yards, 0.5 sack, one QB hurry and a pass breakup.

The 6-foot-3 and 230-pound Logan played four seasons at UMass, including a 2020 Covid season in which he saw action in four games that does not count against eligibility. He has one year of eligibility remaining plus a potential redshirt season if needed. Logan joins an IU middle linebacker room that includes veterans Joshua Rudolph, Jailin Walker, Aiden Fisher, Kaiden Turner, and Isaiah Jones, along with freshman Quentin Clark. For his college career, Logan has appeared in 39 games, has 128 total tackles, eight tackles for loss, 2.5 sacks, three passes defensed, and a fumble recovery. Logan was a three-star linebacker at Hatboro-Horsham High School, where he was ranked among the top-40 players in Pennsylvania according to 247Sports and ESPN.

2024 Big Ten Softball Tournament Bracket Announced
The Big Ten Conference has announced the full 12-team, single-elimination bracket for the 25th Big Ten Softball Tournament, presented by DirecTV that will take place May 8-11 at the University of Iowa’s Bob Pearl Field in Iowa City, Iowa. Northwestern (33-10, 19-3 Big Ten) is the No. 1 seed for this year’s tournament after earning its 10th Big Ten Championship and third in a row on Sunday. The Wildcats have won three Big Ten Tournament titles (1982, 2008, 2023) and will open this year’s tournament on Thursday with a quarterfinal contest at 11 a.m. (CT) live on the Big Ten Network against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round game between No. 9 Purdue and No. 8 Indiana. 

Michigan (38-16, 17-5) is the No. 2 seed for this year’s Big Ten Tournament. The Wolverines have won a conference-record 10 Big Ten Tournament championships, most recently in 2019. They will open this year’s Big Ten Tournament slate at 4:30 p.m. (CT) Thursday, playing live on the Big Ten Network against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round matchup between tenth-seeded Maryland and No. 7 seed Penn State.   Rutgers (33-21, 14-9) is the No. 3 seed for the Big Ten Tournament, the Scarlet Knights’ highest seed ever as part of their fifth Big Ten Tournament appearance. Rutgers opens postseason play with a quarterfinal matchup against the winner of No. 11 Wisconsin and No. 6 Ohio State on Thursday at 7 p.m. (CT) on Big Ten Network.  

Rounding out the top four seeds is Nebraska (29-22,12-9), claiming the last of the tournament byes into the quarterfinal round. Nebraska won its first Big Ten Tournament title in 2022 and will begin its postseason quest Thursday at 1:30 p.m. (CT), playing live on the Big Ten Network against the winner of Wednesday’s first-round matchup between No. 12 Illinois and fifth-seed Minnesota.  All 11 games of this year’s Big Ten Tournament will not only be televised live to a national audience on the Big Ten Network, but will also be available on the FOX Sports app.  For more information on this year’s tournament, visit the Big Ten Tournament Central page at bigten.org/softball

The 2024 Big Ten Softball Tournament, presented by DirecTV schedule is as follows: 

Wednesday, May 8 (First Round)  Game 1 (#9 Purdue vs. #8 Indiana) – 11 a.m. CT (BTN)  Game 2 (#12 Illinois vs. #5 Minnesota) – 1:30 p.m. CT (BTN)  Game 3 (#10 Maryland vs. #7 Penn State) – 4:30 p.m. CT (BTN)  Game 4 (#11 Wisconsin vs. #6 Ohio State) – 7 p.m. CT (BTN) 

Thursday, May 9 (Quarterfinal)  Game 5 (#1 Northwestern vs. Game 1 winner) – 11 a.m. CT (BTN)  Game 6 (#4 Nebraska vs. Game 2 winner) – 1:30 p.m. CT (BTN)  Game 7 (#2 Michigan vs. Game 3 winner) – 4:30 p.m. CT (BTN)  Game 8 (#3 Rutgers vs. Game 4 winner) – 7 p.m. CT (BTN) 

Friday, May 10 (Semifinals)  Game 9 (Game 5 vs. Game 6 winner) – 4 p.m. CT (BTN)  Game 10 (Game 7 vs. Game 8 winner) – 6:30 p.m. CT (BTN) 

Saturday, May 11 (Championship)  Game 11 (Game 9 vs. Game 10 winner) – 3 p.m. CT (BTN) 

Taylor University Women’s Golf Receives At Large Bid to the NAIA National Tournament
The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics recently announced its final Top-25 Poll of the season for women’s golf and named the 30 teams headed to the 2024 NAIA Women’s Golf National Championships in Silvis, Illinois on May 14-17. Taylor received one of the 11 at-large bids for the National Championships, after taking third at the Crossroads League Championships and ending No. 19 in the final NAIA Top-25 Poll of the season. The Trojans will be making their sixth-straight trip to NAIA Nationals, having finished inside the top-20 in the previous five showings. That stretch has been highlighted by a fifth-place finish in 2018 and a second-place finish in 2021.

TU will enter the National Championships playing some of its best golf of the year, having matched its lowest team round of the 2023-2024 season in two of its final three rounds heading into Nationals. For the year, Taylor has won six of its 10 events and finished inside the top-five in all but one. TU’s scoring average of 314.6 was fueled by the play of Shayne Lim and Margarita Garrido, who averaged sub-80 rounds for the season at 75.9 and 78.7 respectively. No. 19 Taylor (53-10) will look to post another strong showing at Nationals, when play begins at TPC Deere Run on May 14. The Trojans are scheduled to tee off at 2:40 pm (ET) on Tuesday and 9:40 am (ET) on Wednesday, May 15. Single rounds will be played each day, with the top-17 teams moving forward to compete in the final two rounds on Thursday and Friday, May 16 and 17. Individuals inside the top-40 will also continue play through the final two rounds. Live stats will be available for the NAIA National Championships on GolfStat.com, with direct links provided on TaylorTrojans.com.

Indianapolis Indians take down Buffalo Bisons Sunday Afternoon at Victory Field
The Indianapolis Indians tallied three runs in the first inning to defeat the Buffalo Bisons in Sunday’s series finale at Victory Field, 8-3. The Indians are now 13-5 at home with three series wins. Following an RBI single by Orelvis Martinez to give Buffalo (18-14), an early lead, Indianapolis took over in its first chance at the plate. Nick Gonzales smacked a line-drive double off former Indian Beau Sulser (L, 0-1) to jumpstart the offense, his first of two doubles in the game. He then scored on a sacrifice fly courtesy of Malcom Nuñez. Two batters later, Former Indiana University Hoosier Matt Gorski singled home Jake Lamb to take the lead.

In the fourth, the Indians (16-14) boosted their lead after a Bisons pitching change when Luis Quinones allowed Dustin Peterson to score on a wild pitch. Gonzales followed with a ground-rule double over the center-field fence to score Andrés Alvarez. Buffalo scored one run in the fifth inning, but it was soon erased by three additional runs scored by Indianapolis. Paul Skenes, making his seventh Triple-A start, gave up his first home run of the season to Will Robertson and surrendered two earned runs in 4.1 innings with four strikeouts. Ben Heller (W, 1-0) struck out each of his five batters faced in relief of Skenes. Heller, Carmen Mlodzinski, Geronimo Franzua and Brent Honeywell combined for 4.2 innings of two-hit ball with eight strikeouts.

Dustin Peterson highlighted Indy’s offense with three hits for his first multi-hit game of the season and his most hits in a single game since July 2, 2022, with Triple-A Lehigh Valley at Syracuse. The Indians head to Louisville for a six-game series with the Reds-affiliated Bats. First pitch of the series from Louisville Slugger Field will be at 6:35pm this evening. Neither team has announced a starting pitcher.

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