Local Sports News: May 20, 2024

Indiana University Softball ends the season in the NCAA Regional in Columbia Missouri
Indiana fell in their second regional game to No. 7 overall seed Missouri on Saturday evening, 5-1. With the loss, the Hoosiers finished their season with a 40-20 overall record. Missouri took an early 2-0 lead in the top of the first when Laird scored on an error and then Honnold scored on a groundout in the next at bat. Indiana’s defense got out of the top of the third quickly, putting together a 1-2-3 inning. In the bottom of the fifth, sophomore Avery Parker hit a line drive to left field for a single and freshman Alex Cooper would get to scoring position at second, but the Hoosiers could not plate a run to leave it at a 2-0 score. Missouri would add on another run in the top of the sixth on a bases loaded walk to make it 3-0. Missouri scored two runs to make it 5-0 in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the seventh inning, junior Sarah Stone hit a home run over the right field wall to make it 5-1. Indiana finished the season with back-to-back 40-plus win seasons, Big Ten Tournament Final appearances and NCAA Regional appearances. Sophomore Sophie Kleiman and junior Brianna Copeland each had two strikeouts. Stone’s home run was her tenth of the season.

Indiana Softball fell in a very close battle against Washington in their opening round game of the NCAA Columbia Regional on Friday afternoon, 8-7. Washington took an early 2-0 lead in the bottom of the second on a double from Johnson and a sac fly from Fiedler. Indiana would go on to make it a 2-1 game in the top of the fourth when freshman Aly VanBrandt put down a perfect bunt for a single and RBI as sophomore Cassidy Kettleman scored. The Huskies would add on another two runs in the fourth, making it 4-1. In the fifth inning, Indiana would score four runs to take a 5-4 lead. The run began when redshirt senior Cora Bassett took home on a throwing error by Washington. A few at-bats later, junior Taylor Minnick hit a clutch double down the right field line to score Copeland and make it 4-3. Junior Sarah Stone hit a go-ahead home run over the left center wall to put the Hoosiers in front, 5-4. In the top of the sixth inning, freshman Alex Cooper hit a solo home run out to dead center and put the Hoosiers up 6-4. Washington took the lead back in the bottom of the sixth inning, going up 7-6. Sophomore Avery Parker doubled off the left field wall to score junior Brianna Copeland to make it 7-7 in the top of the seventh. In the bottom of the inning, Alvarez doubled to put Washington up, 8-7.

Indiana University Field Hockey announces 2024 Schedule Indiana Field Hockey Head Coach Kayla Bashore has announced the team’s 2024 schedule. The schedule includes 17 regular season games and two exhibition contests. Of the 17 games, there are eight Big Ten games and nine non-conference matchups. Including the exhibitions, there will be 11 home games at Deborah Tobias Field. The Hoosiers’ two exhibition games come against Miami (OH) on Sunday, August 18 and Louisville on Sunday, August 26. Indiana’s opening weekend will feature a neutral site game against Liberty on Saturday, August 31 at Kent State and a road game against Kent State the next day.

Then, Indiana will play four straight home games to open regular season play at Deborah Tobias Field. The games will be against Maine (Sep. 9), Miami (Sep. 11), Ball State (Sep. 13) and the opener in Big Ten play against Northwestern on Sunday, September 22. From there, every weekend for the remainder of the season will alternate for being home or away starting with a road weekend to Pennsylvania to play Penn State and Lock Haven. Indiana will close out the regular season with a home game against Michigan State on Friday, Nov. 1. Dates and times are subject to change between now and the start of the season.

Indiana Pacers win Game 6 against the New York Knicks in Indy
The Indiana Pacers beat the New York Knicks 116-103 on Friday night to force a Game 7 in their Eastern Conference semifinal series in Madison Square Garden on Sunday. The game was back-and-forth for the first quarter and a half before the Pacers took control of the game with a 19-5 run late in the second to take a 61-48 lead with 20 seconds in the half. The Knicks went on an 8-0 to cut their deficit to five points in the third quarter, but Indiana responded with another run to build its lead back up to 18 on a T.J. McConnell jumper. Aaron Nesmith extended the Pacers’ lead to 20 with just over five minutes to play in the game. Pascal Siakam led Indiana with 25 points, while Myles Turner added 17. Tyrese Haliburton, Andrew Nembhard and McConnell each had 15. Jalen Brunson scored 31 for New York. The Pacers are now a perfect 6-0 at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in the postseason.

Bloomington South wins Girls Tennis Sectional over Crosstown Rival Bloomington North
Bloomington South athletic director J.R. Holmes was just hoping for a small opening in the clouds between bouts of rain this wet spring to get in the three matches needed this week to complete the girls’ tennis sectional. A window of opportunity is all Panther coach Matt Corry, and his senior class were hoping for as well, a chance for the sun to shine on them as sectional champs for the first time since 2019. South did indeed take advantage, competing a 5-0 sweep of Bloomington North on Friday evening, brightening their skies, no matter what the weather report might say.

Everything seemed to swing in three matches after the Panthers prevailed in long first sets. At 2 doubles, Quinn Reynolds and Everly Clark rallied from down 5-2 and 6-5 to win 7-6(5) and polished off Mira Koduri and Ally O’Guinn 6-2 in the second. Same at 1 doubles, where South’s Hannah Vandeventer and Carla Demeter pulled out a 7-5 victory in the first set against Ingrid Pendergast and Ashley Stegemoller, then 6-2 to close it out. And at 1 singles, Maddie Santner found a way to beat Keira Murphy 7-5 and also finished strong with a 6-2 win.

Carolta Campos flipped it around at 3 singles, winning 6-3 over Hope Isbitts, then coming back from down 5-4 to win 7-5 to complete the team sweep and a moment the exchange student from Spain will never forget. At 2 singles, Booke Liao was cruising but Rahel Samantrai pushed back in the second set of a 6-1, 6-3 decision. As a result, Santner and the top doubles team of Vandeventer and Demeter also are still eligible in the individual tournament after going 2-0 at sectional.

Bloomington North Boys Track and Field Wins the Sectional at Home
Jaidyn Johnson let loose a little bit after crossing the finish line in the 200 finals. Forgive the senior from Bloomington North, he’s just happy to be there. The school record holder in the 100 and 200 had to shut down for a few weeks after a slight pull of his hamstring in the Conference Indiana meet in late April. The Louisville signee started to feel like his old self again recently but cruised through the preliminaries of Thursday’s North boys track sectional, just be sure the lug nuts were good and tight. He opened it up a bit more for the finals, turning in two sectional records of 10.57 and 21.66 to break the previous marks (10.85 and 21.72) that were set by former Cougar standout Thomas Brashear in 1996 and help lead North to the team title. That’s extremely important because he’s one of the state favorites in both races with season bests of 10.34 and 21.15.

There was plenty else for the Cougars to celebrate while scoring 195 points to slip past Bloomington South (177). Between them, the two-schools gobbled up 37 of the 48 automatic regional berths (top three finishes) and won 13 of the 16 events. North will send 17 individuals and two relays to regional. Yeah, just two, that’s the rub. A dropped baton on the last handoff (North sat usual anchor Johnson out of the race) that slipped the Cougars from first to seventh, allowing South (43.17) to win in a season best time and Edgewood to nab second. North was also shut out of sectional titles in the 800, 1,600 and 3,200 and 1,600 relay even while posting some terrific times: Caleb Winders had his second best 800 in 1:53.13, Caelan D’Onofrio had a season best 4:16.75 in the 1,600 and Jacob Mitchell ran a a season best 9:13.10. The 800 saw six runners break 1:59. Beyond that, North did the best it could in pole vault, where Ethan Isles and Will Steiner both went 13-0 to go 1-2. And throws were dominating again as sophomores Adis Hamidovic (161-7) and Lucas Rice (152-2) were 1-2 in discus and Max Wynalda (56-9) and Traeh Young (50-8) were 1-2 in shot put. Evan Cheng had a 21-0 to win long jump and the Cougars won the 3,200 relay (7:58.16) by 26 seconds and just .19 off the meet record. Stephon Opoku was second in the 100 (11.14), James Bosco was runner-up in the 400 (50.26) and Ben Boland second in the 110s (15.46).

Martinsville was third (73½) Edgewood fourth (48), Eastern Greene fifth (44½) and Owen Valley sixth (31). Bloomington South’s Josh Tait (the open 400 champ in 49.20) had the final kick this time for the Panther win in 3:22.72 to North’s 3:23.05. Senior hurdler D’Andre Black he gutted it out enough to sweep the hurdles, well off his best times at 15.22 and 39.97 despite being sick. But South is still sending 12 individuals to regional and that includes 3,200 sectional champ Ryan Rheam (9:10.95), who held off Mitchell (9:13.10). The Panthers’ other two hurdlers made it out: Aazam Zaidi in the 110s and Noah Liell-Beyene in the 300s as did sophomore Khaliq Akou in the 100 (11.20) and 200 (22.42) and Gabe Taylor in the 200. Joe Zinkan had a 9:25.76 for third in the 3,200; Andrew Elsesser made it over 6-2 to take second in the high jump; Ivan Lynch was third in discus (150-0); Alex Shaevitz second in long jump (20-11½) and freshman Arthur Banks was third in pole vault. The Mustangs got just one individual out as Luke Waugh picked up a third place in the long jump at a near season best 20-4. But Edgewood will have plenty of bodies coming back for regional, taking third in all three relays in season best times, going 44.83 in the 400, 3:30.37 in the 1,600 and 8:39.61 in the 3,200. Milan Hancock and Landon Clement ran for the 400 and 1,600 teams and Landon Beauchamp the 1,600 and 3,200 squads.

New York Liberty spoil Caitlin Clark and the Indiana Fever’s regular season home debut at Gainbridge Fieldhouse
The Indiana Fever lost its regular-season home-opener in front of a sellout crowd of 17,274 on Thursday night as Liberty forward Breanna Stewart’s team-high 31 points propelled New York to a 102-66 win against Indiana. Fever (0-2) center Aliyah Boston and forward Katie Lou Samuelson led Indiana in scoring against the Liberty on Thursday night with 12 and 10 points respectively. Samuelson scored eight of her 10 points in the first quarter and went 3-of-3 on field goals and made both of her three-pointers in the opening quarter.

In her Gainbridge Fieldhouse regular season debut, Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark went 2-of-8 shooting and went 1-of-7 from beyond the arc to finish with nine points. Clark went 4-of-4 from the free throw line and finished with a team-high six assists to go along with seven rebounds. Clark played 30 minutes had a block, 3 turnovers and committed five fouls. Former IU Star Grace Berger scored 7 points in 7 minutes going 2-2 from the field, 3-4 from the free throw line with a turnover and three fouls.

After trailing by as much as 23 in the third quarter, Indiana closed the gap to finish the frame on a 12-0 run and shrink the deficit to 11 going into the fourth. New York opened the fourth quarter with a 12-0 run of its own and eventually solidified its second consecutive win to start the 2024 regular season. Liberty guards Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, Sabrina Ionescu and forward Jonquel Jones followed behind Stewart ending the night scoring in double figures. Jones and Stewart both recorded double-doubles with Jones finishing the game with 14 points and 10 rebounds, while Stewart pulled down 10 rebounds as well. Ionescu tallied 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists. New York outscored Indiana in paint points, 48-28, and shot 22-of-23 from the free throw line while Indiana shot 17-of-22.

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