Hoosiers drop home opener to Blue Raiders

The Indiana Hoosiers came into Friday’s matchup excited to take on Middle Tennessee. What started as excitement, quickly turned to dismay as the Blue Raiders piled on the runs early and kept Indiana off the base paths in a 5-3 loss for the Hoosiers Friday afternoon.

A rather cold afternoon in Bloomington for the first home game of the season apparently meant cold bats as well. The visitors had no problem lighting up the scoreboard in the first two innings, however.

Riley Delgado started off the game with a hit to right field that was mishandled by Logan Sowers making it so Delgado could advance to second. Delgado then made his way to third on a groundout and was batted in for the first run of the game by way of a sacrifice fly. The Blue Raiders really started to pile it on in the Top of the 2nd with a leadoff double by Kaleb King. One groundout and a single later and King had touched the plate for the second run of the game for Middle Tennessee. Two more singles and a sac fly and the score increased to a three-run lead for the Blue Raiders.

Jake Wyrick, pitcher for Middle Tennessee, came into the game with a 2-0 record and a 1.76 ERA and showed why he has those great numbers. Wyrick struck four of the first six batters he faced before finally giving up a hit in the 3rd to Tony Butler. He then proceeded to strikeout the next two Hoosiers and end the 3rd inning. Wyrick kept the strikeouts coming before coming out after the 7th totaling 11 strikeouts and giving up two runs on four hits. Wyrick ultimately recorded the win and improved to 3-0 on the season.

The 4th inning brought another run for the Blue Raiders and two for the Hoosiers making the score 4-2. Neither team scored again until the 7th when MTSU’s Blake Benefield scored on an error making it 5-2.

Indiana had a chance to score in the 8th with the bases loaded and two outs with Jake Matheny up to bat, but the wind held his deep ball up which found a Blue Raider mitt. The Hoosiers did score one more run in the bottom of the 9th when Tony Butler led them off with a triple to left and then scored on a sac fly by Krupa. But Middle Tennessee State closed the door from there.

Indiana (4-7-1) will take on Middle Tennessee again tomorrow starting at 2:05 p.m. ET.