Examining The Series:
The Indiana Hoosiers faced off against the Evansville Purple Aces on Tuesday and lost 5-4 in extra innings. I don’t think it’s a stretch to call that Indiana’s worst loss of the season thus far. All season, it seems as though just when a bright spot looks to be peaking through the clouds, a storm falls instead. Now, this storm is reaching hurricane levels as the Hoosiers have dropped six straight games, including one to a very low-ranked Indiana State team and now a very low-ranked Evansville team. The season, at this rate, seems to be spiraling away.
Hoping to rescue the season, the Hoosiers host Rutgers for a three-game series in Bloomington. The game information is as follows:
Game 1: Friday, April 3 @ 6:00 PM ET
Game 2: Saturday, April 4 @ 2:00 PM ET
Game 3: Sunday, April 5 @ 1:00 PM ET
Neither team is having a stellar season. Looking deeper into rankings, we see the following:
Indiana: The Hoosiers dropped to an RPI ranking of 97th in the country, falling 11 spots after losing to Evansville. Looking at ELO ranking – a more analytical ranking for teams – the Hoosiers land at 113th in the country, dropping 15 spots after losing to Evansville. The Hoosiers’ record is now 10-18 as they sit 15th in the Big Ten by overall record (out of 17 total teams).
Rutgers: The Scarlet Knights currently rank 144th in the country by RPI and 103rd in the country by ELO. They sit in the middle of the pack in the Big Ten by way of overall record (15-13), but have a very weak strength of schedule ranking at the moment (171st toughest schedule, compared to Indiana’s 20th toughest).
Indiana Stats and Figures:
1: The Hoosiers have won just one three-game series all season (Minnesota). Rutgers presents another great opportunity to win a series and make that number two, especially being at home. If the Hoosiers want to salvage this season, they need to win two or three this weekend.
18: True freshman Owen ten Oever is 18 years old and is currently listed as the youngest player on the team. He just recently started getting some at-bats and has struck fire. In his 10 plate appearances thus far, he is hitting .400 with an OPS of 1.200. I know, this is 10 plate appearances we’re talking about, but I’m always excited to see a freshman play well.
Prediction and Next Series:
Rutgers is not a great team, but the Hoosiers have shown that they can lose to teams that are not great. Still, I am predicting that the Hoosiers win 2 of 3 this series. Something has to give, and the Hoosiers do have talent on this squad. Here’s hoping this series can help to get the cart back on the rails a bit.
After Rutgers, the Hoosiers face off against Ball State on Tuesday at 6:00 PM ET in Bloomington before traveling to College Park, Maryland, to take on the Terrapins. Be on the lookout for a preview of those series next week!
Stay locked in with Hoosier Huddle for recaps of IU baseball games and series, along with previews examining each one ahead of time. Go Hoosiers!
All ranking metrics courtesy of warrennolan.com. All other metrics courtesy of baseball-reference.com