Indiana’s bats go cold in 6-2 loss to Florida Atlantic

After an eight-run offensive outburst on Friday against Florida Atlantic, Indiana was unable to recreate the same kind of performance on Saturday, mostly due a strong performance by Owls’ P Jake Miednik (8 IP, 2 ER, 5 H, 7 SO). But for the first half of the contest it was unclear which team would come out on top.

The Owls got off to a strong start with an RBI single from Austin Langham in the Bottom of the 1st. However, FAU had missed an opportunity by stranding two runners in scoring position to end the inning.

To counter FAU’s early strike, the Hoosiers responded in the Top of the 3rd with a two-run homer to the opposite field from sophomore Luke Miller, giving Indiana a 2-1 lead and Miller his first blast of the season.

But after assessing the damage done in the Top of the 3rd inning, Florida Atlantic didn’t look back. In the bottom of that inning, FAU tied the game 2-2 thanks to a lead off, first pitch home run from SS Tyler Frank.

Then, after a quiet 4th inning from both teams, FAU broke away after Indiana P Tim Herrin (4 IP, 4 ER, 6 H, 2 SO) allowed another home run, this time to C Pedro Pages, putting the Owls up 3-2. Things got worse from there as Herrin allowed FAU to load the bases with no outs. This prompted Chris Lemonis to go to his bullpen and put P Andrew Saalfrank (4 IP, 1 ER, 6 H, 4 SO) in the game.

Saalfrank walked the first hitter he saw on four pitches, increasing FAU’s lead to 4-2. After the walk, however, the Indiana defense responded by fielding a double play and catching a pop fly to end a dangerous situation for the Hoosiers.

Not much else went right defensively for the Hoosiers, today as they committed a total of four errors.

The fourth error ended up costing Indiana a run in the Bottom of the 6th extending the lead even further to 5-2.

The final run of the game came in the Bottom of the 8th after another RBI from Frank gave the Owls 6-2 lead after he singled to right field scoring CF Eric Rivera.

Indiana (3-3) heads into their final game against Florida Atlantic (4-1) on Sunday at 12:00 p.m. ET looking to win the weekend series.