'It's frustrating': Indiana goes from rolling to reeling within a week

At this time last week, Indiana baseball was flying high. Fresh off a sweep of Michigan State and winners of four straight, the Hoosiers looked like a team rediscovering its identity.

Seven days later, they look like a team still searching for answers.

“It’s hard, it’s frustrating,” head coach Jeff Mercer said postgame. “Last week at this time we were playing great baseball. You feel like you turned a corner last week … but it’s a hard game.”

On a cool Tuesday evening at Bart Kaufman Field, Indiana’s frustrating season earned another bruising notch — this time a 7-5 loss to in-state foe Indiana State.

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Despite surrendering just a single extra-base hit all night, Indiana’s season-long struggles in close games reappeared, dropping the Hoosiers to 5-10 in games decided by three runs or fewer.

It was a game that unraveled in the fifth inning — four Indiana State runs on five well-placed singles and two costly walks flipped a 2-0 Indiana lead into a 4-2 deficit.

The Sycamores didn’t overwhelm with power. In fact, they barely hit the ball hard. But they made contact, ran well and forced Indiana into high-pressure moments the Hoosiers couldn’t escape cleanly.

“The one big inning hurt,” Mercer said. “We gave them some freebies, and then they were able to find some holes and execute, and they did a good job with it.”

Indiana used nine different pitchers across nine innings in a bullpen game that lacked rhythm and consistency. None of the nine pitched more than two full innings.

Sophomore left-hander Ryan Rushing drew the short straw, saddled with the loss after things unraveled in the fifth. While the box score showed 11 hits allowed, 10 of them were singles — a night full of jam shots, infield rollers and bloops that found outfield grass.

“Sometimes you get ‘baseballed,’” Mercer said. “That’s the way it goes.”

But for Indiana, “the way it goes” is starting to feel too familiar.

The Hoosiers managed just seven hits on the night, with nearly half coming in a frantic ninth inning. Four of Indiana’s five runs came via the long ball, including junior star Devin Taylor’s sixth-inning blast that tied the program’s all-time home run record at 47.

Still, the solo shot only trimmed the deficit, and the situational hitting woes remained. Indiana finished just 2-for-14 with runners on base and an anemic 2-for-11 with two outs.

Even in the final frame, with the tying run at the plate, Indiana couldn’t deliver the moment it desperately needed. Redshirt senior Jake Stadler’s fly to center field sealed the Sycamores’ win — and another missed opportunity in a season piling up with them.

What makes it sting even more for Indiana is the contrast to last week’s optimism.

The Hoosiers had just finished throttling Michigan State in a dominant three-game sweep, outscoring the Spartans 38-8. Then they edged Ball State in a midweek test. The NCAA Tournament felt like a plausible conversation again.

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But since then, Indiana has dropped three of its last four, including two of three this past weekend in Champaign. In just seven days, the postseason outlook has dimmed considerably. Now, Indiana finds itself in a grind just to stay above water in the Big Ten standings.

“Anytime you lose, there’s frustration,” Mercer said. “If you’re not frustrated, then you don’t care enough. Anytime you lose, it’s tough. It’s a hard pill to swallow.”

Now at 4-4 in midweek contests and reeling from a slide that’s undone a week of momentum, the Hoosiers return to Big Ten play with even higher stakes. For a team running out of wiggle room and time, the frustration is real. The effort is evident. But the wins — they’re not coming easy.

And that, more than anything, is what’s eating at them.

“As a player, you work your whole year to go out and win. As a coach, you work your tail off every day to go out to win,” Mercer said. “Anytime you don’t have the success you want, it’s frustrating.”