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On Sunday, Indiana honored its seven seniors and thanked them for their contributions and dedication to the program. Then those seniors, and a number of newcomers, put their collective foot on Penn State’s throat and took their fifth straight series with a 10-2 win.
Offensively for the Hoosiers, the elders led the way. Indiana struck first when senior Craig Dedelow doubled in the Bottom of the 1st to score fellow senior Tony Butler and move Matt Lloyd to third. Lloyd would score on a wild pitch later in the inning. Dedelow then scored on a Logan Sowers double to give Indiana an early 3-0 lead.
In the Top of the 5th, Penn State cut the lead to 3-1, but the Hoosiers got that run right back in the bottom half when senior Alex Krupa scored on a Lloyd single.
That was plenty of offense for Indiana, as freshman and newly appointed starter Cal Krueger was dominant. The young gun threw 6.0 IP of five-hit baseball and his only run allowed, the one in the Top of the 5th, was unearned. Another freshman, Cam Beauchamp took over in the Top of the 7th and held the lead with two innings of one-hit baseball.
In both of Beauchamp’s innings, the Hoosiers added to their lead. In the Bottom of the 7th, Butler doubled to score Krupa and Jeremy Houston to make it 6-1. Then, in the Bottom of the 8th, Dedelow and Sowers went back-to-back with solo shots, giving Indiana an 8-1 lead. Butler rounded out the Indiana with a two-RBI single later in the inning. Butler finished with four RBIs.
Penn State was able to put one more run on the board with a solo home run in the Top of the 9th, but JuCo transfer Kade Kryzsko closed the door and wrapped up a 10-2 Indiana victory.
Despite notching yet another series win, Indiana (29-19-2, 12-8-1) ended the weekend still in sixth in the Big Ten standings, as Iowa (31-18, 13-8) took two of three from Ohio State to stay 0.5 game ahead of the Hoosiers.
Indiana will host No. 2 Louisville (46-6, 23-4 ACC) on Tuesday in the final home game of the season. The Cardinals swept Clemson this weekend, in South Carolina, and have won 15 straight games and 22 of their last 25.
Then the Hoosiers will head to Columbus next weekend to finish their regular season. With one win against Ohio State, they will clinch a berth in the Big Ten Tournament.