The Indiana Hoosiers won the series finale in dominant fashion on Sunday, beating the Auburn Tigers 11-2 at Plainsman Park. The Tigers begin the 2023 season 2-1, however, still have much work to do to reach their full potential and once again have a successful season.
Freshman Ike Irish looked like a star in the making during the weekend series, batting .500 with six hits and three runners batted in (RBI) over those three games. Another bright spot for the Tigers offense was senior third basemen Bryson Ware.
Ware batted .583 with seven hits, two RBIs, and scoring seven runs. However, Ware committed two errors in the first and second games, by missing a ground ball and overthrowing first baseman Brody Worthem. The Tigers were inconsistent with their instincts at the plate, striking out 11 times in the first game and 9 in the finale. However, the Hoosiers walked the Tigers 18 times during the series, 16 of which coming in their victories in the first two games.
The pitching staff for the Tigers looked unhittable at times, striking out the Hoosiers 17 times and only allowing five runs and nine hits during the first two games of the series. However, Auburn looked extremely vulnerable on Sunday, giving up 14 hits and a grand slam in the first inning at the hands of Carter Mathison. The Hoosiers also had fourteen hits and were walked seven times, the same amount over their first two games combined.
After losing eight players from the 2022 College World Series team, it’ll take some time for the Tigers to replace that type of production. There are many young stars on this team that Tiger fans can be excited about for this season.
So far, Ike Irish has lived up to being the number 39 player in the country and will continue to get better as he gains more experience in an extremely tough SEC conference. Nine of the top twenty-five teams in the country are in the SEC, with seven of those in the top ten.
This weekend's series against the Indiana Hoosiers showed that the Tigers showed that they still have a lot of work to do to get ready for the grueling SEC schedule, which begins on March 17th in Arkansas against the Razorbacks. Until then, however, the Tigers must turn their attention to Tuesday, when they will face North Alabama in Huntsville. After this, the Tigers will make the long journey west to Los Angeles to play a three game-series next weekend against the USC Trojans.
