For the first time since 2013, Indiana baseball posted its first 40-win regular season with the Hoosiers’ 6-5 victory over Michigan State on Saturday. The last time Indiana won 40 games overall was in 2018 with 37 of them coming in the regular season.
This is only the ninth time in program history that the Indiana baseball program has posted a 40-win season.
Not only did the win over the Spartans get Indiana to achieve that mark, it also secured a second place finish in the conference standings as well. Now, Indiana heads into the Big Ten Tournament as the No. 2 overall seed.
Going into the Michigan State series, Indiana baseball head coach Jeff Mercer knew exactly the opportunity the Hoosiers had in front of them.
“We’ve done the things we needed to do,” Mercer said. “We control our own destiny. We put ourselves in position to play in the (NCAA tourney).”
The Spartans would have the opening score for the first time over the weekend with a single run in the first inning. The Hoosiers when then go onto tie it up in the third inning before scoring twice in the fifth inning, once in the sixth, and twice in the eighth inning.
Michigan State only added single runs in the fifth and sixth as well as two runs in the ninth.
Freshman star out fielder Devin Taylor would post his fourth multi-home run game of the season, which is his third time doing so in the Big Ten. He would move into No. 3 on the all-time Big Ten freshman home run charts.
Indiana baseball will now turn their focus to the Big Ten Tournament, which begins on Tuesday (May 23rd) at Charles Schwab Field in Omaha, Nebraska.
The No. 2-seed Indiana will start play at 2 p.m. The Hoosiers finish the regular season 16-8 in the conference, 40-16 overall.
Make sure to follow Hoosier Illustrated on Twitter @Indiana_FRN and YouTube to stay up to date on all of the news, updates and coverage of Indiana University athletics.
