Quick Series Review
The Indiana Hoosiers baseball program recently finished up a disappointing weekend in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, falling to the No. 11 UNC Tar Heels in a series sweep. The three games shaped out as follows:
Friday, 2/13: Indiana – 4, #11 North Carolina – 9
Saturday, 2/14 (Gm 1): Indiana – 2, #11 North Carolina – 12
Saturday, 2/14 (Gm 2): Indiana – 3, #11 North Carolina – 4
After this series, the Hoosiers dropped significantly in country-wide ELO rankings provided by warrennolan.com. They entered the year ranked 54th in the country by ELO, a respectable ranking for a team facing a lot of question marks along with high upside. After this series, however, the Hoosiers have fallen 20 spots in ELO and are now ranked 74th in the country. This ranking, of course, is fluid and is especially volatile early on in the season, but this is still quite concerning for the Hoosiers.
Thoughts and Analysis
Indiana at the Plate:
Entering the 2026 season, I wrote a season preview for this Hoosiers squad. In that preview, I called out the two biggest keys for the season: hitting for power and finding consistency in pitching. The Hoosiers have Jake Hanley, reigning Big Ten Freshman of the Year and all around stud, who can hit the ball wherever he wants. Around him, however, the Hoosiers boast several strong hitters with great plate discipline, but who bring very little power to the table.
Last year, the Hoosiers had MLB draftees Devin Taylor and Korbyn Dickerson on the team who combined for 37 home runs and each had OPS’s over 1.000. Taylor and Dickerson, combined with Hanley, formed a combination that made it extremely difficult for opposing pitchers to navigate. You couldn’t pitch around one player because one of the other two would be next. It made pitchers work harder and forced them to throw strikes. Strikes are good, strikes can be smashed, and strikes were indeed smashed by these three during the 2025 season.
This season presents some issue, however, as Taylor and Dickerson are now gone to MLB and Hanley remains as the sole big power threat on the team. As the biggest threat to look out for, with a drop in power after him, it makes it easier for opposing pitchers to handle. They can pitch around Hanley and generally not give him much attention. Simply don’t make a mistake to him and if you walk him, that’s fine, because it is less likely this season that a scoring threat will come after him than in season’s past.
As such, it is of immense imperative that the Hoosiers grow in hitting for power. This series, however, was not the series for that. Over these three games, the Hoosiers combined for two extra base hits and zero home runs. They went up against one of the best teams in the country in North Carolina, but I know the Hoosiers have higher expectations than that.
Again, their plate discipline was solid, walking 17 times this series, but the world of Billy Beane’s Moneyball A’s has changed. Drawing walks is good, but hitting for power is how you win games. Ideally, you do both to win a championship, but hitting for power has become a necessity in modern baseball. The Hoosiers will need to find their groove in this regard if they hope to challenge for an NCAA Tournament spot.
Indiana on the Mound:
On the pitching end after hiring a new coach in Matt Myers about three months ago as of this writing, the Hoosiers simply need to find consistency for the 2026 season. I stated in my season preview that over the past three seasons, team ERA has been the following: 2025: ERA of 5.61, 2024: ERA of 6.21, 2023: ERA of 5.27. Those figures are not good. This season projects hope that with a change in pitching coaches, maybe a change in results follows. Against, North Carolina, however, the pitching staff did not start off the season strongly.
Over the three game series, Hoosier pitchers walked 19 batters and only struck out 17. This is a clear sign of a lack of zone command and threat posed by Indiana pitchers. Now, I understand, North Carolina is very good, this staff is going through a coaching change, and the staff as a whole is new and lost key pieces after the 2025 season, but this needs to be better.
I mentioned above that baseball has changed to where modern baseball now values hitting for power more so than simply getting on base. On the pitching side, things have changed as well. Since hitters are looking to hit for power, they are much more selective in their swing decisions. As such, pitchers have needed to adjust and are now looking for strikeouts. Pitchers cannot pitch to contact anymore because hitters are simply too good and will take that contact out of the ballpark, so pitchers have had to innovate.
Velocity has increased significantly over the years, pitch designs have become far more advanced to disguise pitches, and pitch tunneling is now a common tactic to throw different pitches down the same plane so they look the same to the hitter, only to break off on separate paths at the last second, forcing the hitter to guess more. Pitchers have seen success with this, and it has revolutionized modern baseball.
I am not saying the Hoosiers pitching staff is not doing this, I am sure they are looking at every bit of it. However, the execution needs to be there. Similar to the Hoosiers’ offense needing to hit for power, the Hoosiers’ pitching staff needs to grow in forcing strikeouts to opposing hitters. If the Hoosiers can take steps forward in both of these areas, an NCAA Tournament berth is a real possibility. They don’t need to be perfect, but growth needs to be shown in order to keep the cart on the rails.
The Hoosiers next face Bradley in the Hoosiers’ home opener for a one-game series before traveling to the Live Like Lou Jacksonville Baseball Classic. Stay locked in with Hoosier Huddle for all the Indiana baseball – and Indiana sports – news that you want to see. As always, go Hoosiers!
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