Midwest Connection: Early-season impressions
ANALYSIS Patrick Ebert and Burke Granger - February 28, 2024
Midwest Connection: Early-season impressions • D1Baseball
Travis Luensmann and Penn State took two of three from Stanford as one of a handful of Big Ten and Midwest teams making a favorable early impression.
Two weeks into the 2024 season, it’s time to take a look at a small handful of Midwest teams making an impression early in the year. This list includes No. 20 Indiana, who entered the D1Baseball Top 25 after the first weekend of play,
and 7-0 Indiana State, who has an opportunity to join the Hoosiers among the ranked teams with a key non-conference series at Southern Miss ahead of them.
Indiana State
Indiana State followed up opening weekend wins against Louisville, Connecticut and South Florida with another unbeaten weekend. This time, the Sycamores beat Florida Gulf Coast, Michigan State and then Marshall twice to improve to 7-0. Indiana state is one of just 16 undefeated programs heading into week three and their team ERA of 2.08 ranks seventh nationally. These accolades combined with the high regard that Mitch Hannahs has earned for this program year in and year out have the Sycamores knocking on the door of the Top 25.
While the Sycamores have been quite democratic on the mound, as seven different pitchers accounted for the team’s seven wins, but there have been standouts. Sophomore righthander Jacob Pruitt has been superlative, going 1-0, 0.77 with 20 strikeouts compared to just three walks in 11.2 innings. Indiana transfer Luke Hayden was a highly touted prep arm who struggled during his time in Bloomington. He’s been terrific for his new team, allowing no earned runs over two starts while striking out a batter an inning. Most importantly, he’s only walked three in 10.2 innings thus far after having trouble throwing trikes consistently for the Hoosiers. Jared Spencer has been his usual dominant self in the back end, allowing just one hit over three scoreless, walkless innings where he struck out five.
Parker Stinson homered twice over the weekend, boosting his slash line to .360/.469/.720 on the young season. He’s already posted three multi-hit games in seven tries this spring. Randal Diaz is sporting a .950 OPS after going 5-for-16 with a home run and four RBIs this weekend. Senior outfielder Adam Pottinger swung a hot stick over the weekend, going 4-for-14 with a pair of doubles and three runs scored.
