Examining The Series:
The Indiana Hoosiers wrapped up a win on Tuesday over the Ball State Cardinals to make it three wins in their last four games. Now, the Hoosiers travel to College Park, Maryland to take on a potentially underrated Terrapins squad in a huge three game series. The series info is as follows:
Game 1: Friday, April 10 @ 6:00 PM ET
Game 2: Saturday, April 11 @ 2:00 PM ET
Game 3: Sunday, April 12 @ 12:00 PM ET
Games 1 and 2 can be seen on B1G+, while game 3 can be seen on Big Ten Network. Looking deeper into both teams, we see the following:
Indiana: The Hoosiers now rank 104th in the country by RPI ranking, up 1 spot after beating Ball State. By way of ELO ranking – a more analytical ranking system – the Hoosiers land at 98th in the country, up 7 spots after their Tuesday win. This season has been tough for Indiana as they sit 15th in the Big Ten out of 17 teams with a record of 13-19. There is some hope, however, as their strength of schedule ranks 35th in the country.
Maryland: The Terrapins rankings are interesting. RPI has them at 64th in the country while ELO puts Maryland at 119th in the country. This huge difference is not typically seen, at least in the Hoosiers’ case, whose rankings have followed largely in step with one another all season long. This could mean that there is some uncertainty with this Terrapin squad. They are 13th in the Big Ten with a record of 15-18 but have the 17th toughest schedule in the country, which is likely the reason for such a discrepancy in ranking. In all likelihood, Maryland falls somewhere in the middle of these two rankings, which is still better than where the Hoosiers fall. As such – especially being at home – the Terrapins are likely favored to win this series.
Indiana Stats and Figures:
3.38 ERA: Freshman pitcher Ivan Mastalski has quietly been having a fantastic first season in the Cream and Crimson. He is 5th on the team in innings pitched and has a very strong ERA of 3.38. He has one of the best strikeout to walk ratios on the team and is an extremely promising player to watch for the Hoosiers moving forward.
19th: Sophomore Hogan Denny has been on fire this season, leading the Hoosiers in OPS with a mark of 1.039. This also puts him at 19th best in the Big Ten by OPS, which is an incredible feat given the amount of talent other Big Ten teams possess. Denny is right there with them and has been phenomenal so far in 2026. If Denny keeps this up, it is entirely possible the Mooresville, Indiana native receives a call to the majors in the future.
Prediction and Next Series:
Look, the Hoosiers are hot. They’ve won 3 of 4 and, while they’ve had things break their way a few times, confidence is no doubt growing as we hit the midseason mark. The Terrapins will be favored to win the series, but I think the Hoosiers win 2 of 3 here. Let’s keep the bats hot and continue pitching well (Indiana has allowed 15 runs in their past 4 games, good for an average of 3.75 runs per game, which will do the job).
After the Hoosiers travel to Maryland, they travel to Indiana State on Tuesday before hosting Evansville on Wednesday and hosting Abilene Christian over the weekend. 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