Coming off of a road series win against Maryland and a 39-run explosion in two games, Indiana Baseball will host Wright State Wednesday.
The Hoosiers will seek to make it three wins in a row Wednesday after demolishing Maryland 20-5 on Saturday and 19-4 on Sunday. It won’t be an easy task though for the Hoosiers.
The Raiders have been quite successful this season. They come into the week with an 18-8 record prior to Tuesday's game against Wofford, and have three wins over ranked opponents.
Let’s take a look at what Wright State will bring to the series.
Sense of Familiarity
Not only will the game be competitive, but these teams know each other quite well. Indiana Head Coach Jeff Mercer was the former head coach at Wright State in the past two seasons and served on the coaching staff as an assistant since September 2013.
Just a season ago, Mercer led Wright State to a Horizon League Championship and an NCAA Tournament bid before getting eliminated in the Regional round.
• 3 HR Sat. a Freshman Record
• 6 RBI on Week
• 4, 3+ Hit Games this Season@Grantr_1 | #IUBase pic.twitter.com/BIiEBp2Ofd
— Indiana Baseball ⚾️ (@IndianaBase) April 1, 2019
Mercer will also be coaching against his alma mater as he played for the Raiders and graduated from Wright State in 2009.
Possible pitchers
Like most programs, Wright State will likely use a number of pitchers for the midweek contest.
Wright State has had many weeks this season where they’ve played two midweek games, freshman pitcher Riley Perlich has carved out a role as the typical Wednesday game starter.
Perlich has had a solid freshman campaign. The right hander has an ERA of 3.12 and has struck out 14 batters in 17.1 innings of work. He’s also only allowed three walks and 15 hits on the season.
This Week:
• 5 HR, 11 RBI, 2 2B, 8 R
• 1.957 OPS
• 21-Game Reached Base Streak@mlloyd07 | #IUBase pic.twitter.com/NGH5skfUqW
— Indiana Baseball ⚾️ (@IndianaBase) April 1, 2019
Other likely Midweek options for the Raiders include:
- Freshman, Tristan Haught (16.1 IP, 10 Ks, 3.86 ERA)
- Freshman, Henry Von Hollen (15.1 IP, 11 Ks, 1.76 ERA)
- Senior, Tyler Luneke (9.2 IP, 6 Ks, 0.93 ERA)
- Senior, Evan Moores (11.1 IP, 15 Ks, 3.09 ERA)
- Freshman, Bradley DeBoutte (7.1 IP, 6 Ks, 2.45 ERA)
Hitting
Wright State has a number of weapons from the plate with six hitters with a .280 batting average or better with 50 or more at-bats.
Junior Peyton Burdick is their consensus best hitter and is projected to be the Horizon League Player of the Year. He is also expected to be a likely prospect for the 2019 MLB Draft.
Burdick has proven worthy of the expectations. He has a tremendous .421 batting average and has accumulated 30 RBIs, 5 home runs, and 18 extra base hits this season. He is coming into the Indiana match-up on fire as well. In Wright State’s series against Youngstown State last weekend Burdick was 8-13 from the plate.
B3
Peyton Burdick hits an absolute ?! His 3-run blast to left-center field, against the wind, followed by Weatherford's inside-the-park home-run down the right field line allows the Raiders to put up a 4-spot in the third!
XU 1 | 6 WSU
— Wright St. Baseball (@WSUBaseball) March 26, 2019
Junior Seth Gray and senior Zach Weatherford are strong complimentary pieces to Burdick as well. Gray holds a .322 batting average with three home runs and 24 RBIs. Gray also has great plate discipline with 15 walks.
Weatherford is hitting for a .313 batting average and racks up the runs as well with four home runs and has 25 RBIs as well.
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