Indiana baseball wins fourth straight

The Indiana bullpen was stout in 6.0 IP of relief work early Friday morning in Honolulu and powered the Hoosiers to a 4-3 win over Hawaii, their second o the series and fourth straight.

Hoosier starter Tim Herrin struggled a bit with the high-powered Rainbow Warriors offense, allowing three runs on five hits in just 3.0 IP. But Kade Kryzsko (3.0 IP), Brad Littleton (1.2 IP), and Matt Lloyd (1.1 IP) allowed just five more hits over the next six innings and held Hawaii scoreless.

After Hawaii had taken a 1-0 lead in the Bottom of the 2nd, Alex Krupa continued his hot hitting, singling up the middle to score Jeremy Houston in the Top of the 3rd to tie the game at one.

Hawaii got two more in the Bottom of the 3rd and led nearly the rest of the way. But in the Top of the 8th, Matt Gorski reached to lead off the inning after an error by the Hawaii defense. Two batters later, Luke Miller hit a bomb to left field and tied the ballgame 3-3.

The Hoosiers completed the comeback in the Top of the 9th. Tony Butler was hit by a pitch to start the inning and then advanced to second on a Colby Stratten bunt. Then Krupa singled to left to move Butler to third. Gorski finished the job, knocking Butler home on a fielder’s choice that nailed Krupa at second, but Hawaii was unable to turn two and the Hoosiers took the 4-3 lead.

The win was Indiana’s fourth straight, dating back to last weekend’s series with Middle Tennessee State, and they are now up to 37th in the RPI rankings despite being 106th just two weeks ago.

The Hoosiers (8-7-1) will face Hawaii (10-7) again while you are sleeping early Saturday morning at 12:35 a.m. ET in Honolulu.