Indiana lost back-to-back midweek games amid a stretch of eight games in nine days. No. 9 Vanderbilt beat Indiana 13-5 on Tuesday and Illinois State won 16-6 on Wednesday.
Early in the season, Indiana's coaches are trying to grasp the depth of their roster at certain positions and how to develop their players. After Wednesday's game, Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said players were tugging at his shirtsleeves to get in the game.
Mercer has a philosophy of letting younger and more inexperienced players get experience during midweek games. They're an opportunity for the players to get game reps and for Mercer and his staff to evaluate them.
This is a process that has worked in the past, especially with the pitching staff. However, after Indiana already dropped a couple of midweek games, maybe this plan isn't working as effectively this year.
Evan Whiteaker relieved freshman Seth Benes in the second inning on Wednesday after three batters after Benes failed to record an out. Whiteaker gave up 11 runs on nine hits over three innings. Indiana needed someone to cover innings and the coaches didn't want to overuse any other pitchers. Mercer emphasizes avoiding injuries to his pitchers so that they stay healthy and available as the season progresses.
“You're just asking too much of a guy on short rest, on short order, to have to go again, you know, multiple innings in a weekend to go a midweek [game] and in a nonsafe situation," Mercer said.
Mercer said asking a pitcher who threw 100 pitches over the weekend to throw again in a midweek game for a couple of innings, then again the next weekend creates an added injury risk.
“The reality is if we don't develop depth, we're not going to have depth," Mercer said.
Mercer credited midweek pitchers Ryan Rushing, Eli Shaw, Jacob Vogel, Drew Buhr, Brandon Keyster and Grant Holderfield as players who have been excellent or improved on the mound. The Hoosiers need to figure out this midweek puzzle by creating a stack of pitchers who can compete to win.
“The best indicator of future success is past success," Mercer said. "And so we've had success this year. We beat good teams, we've been a good team, we'll be a good team again.”
Mercer said Indiana's recent losses aren't due to a lack of ability, investment or effort.
“We're lined up for this weekend the best we can be," he said.
Indiana (9-8) will host Belmont (10-7) at Bart Kaufman Field this weekend for a three-game series on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
