That’ll do it for the 2026
#iubase season.
Hoosiers finish 23-31 overall and 9-21 in the B1G.
Second losing season in the eight years under direction of head coach Jeff Mercer.
IU finishes tied for 16th out of the 17-team league, after being projected to finish 5th in the preseason.
Indiana failed in capitalizing on a tough non-conference schedule behind the third-game debacle at North Carolina, blown leads to LSU and Notre Dame in Jacksonville, and a 4-game series split with Western Kentucky.
Despite that, Indiana was 9-2 in midweek games. Certainly one of the better midweek records in many, many years. Those included wins on the road at Vanderbilt and Louisville.
In the conference, they won just three series, against Minnesota (B1G No. 11), Rutgers (B1G No. 12), and Illinois (B1G No. 9).
Hard to forget about the walk-off grand slam series loss at Maryland, blown 4 run leads in a series sweep at Purdue, and consecutive losses to a Northwestern team that hadn’t won a B1G series until they had faced Indiana.
On a positive note… incredible seasons for Hogan Denny, Caleb Koskie, and Jake Hanley, who paced the offense from the jump.
The three all batted over .330 and had 44 RBIs. Denny and Hanley combined for 28 home runs while Koskie etched his name in the IU record books with a 22-game hit streak.
On the pitching end, transfer Tony Neubeck and graduate arm Gavin Seebold were at the forefront of the success on the rubber. Outside of those two, only freshman Ivan Mastalski had under a 4 ERA.
An extremely young team in the sport of college baseball certainly had their fair share of growing pains.
Always appreciate being a part of
@iubase17 and thank you to those of you who follow along each week.