Rocky Toppled: Indiana Gives Up X Homers, xx Walks in xx-x Loss to No. 1 Tennessee

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee is ranked No. 1 in the country for a lot of very viable reasons. They can thump you just fine without any help, thank you very much.

And when you start doling out gifts to the Vols left and right, well, it’s a recipe for disaster. That was certainly the case for Indiana Saturday night in the NCAA Tournament baseball regional in Knoxville. They got boat-raced 12-6 by the Vols, who took advantage of 11 walks and two hit batters in the rout.

The Volunteers, who lead the nation in home runs, slugged four more on Saturday. That’s never a good thing, but when you consider that six of their other runs came with walks or hit batters just ahead of the homers, that was a big problem

Indiana made it too easy. Far too easy.

“Tennessee is a great team and they are No. 1 for a reason. But the difference really was the free bases on our part,” Indiana coach Jeff Mercer said. “Give them credit, they forced the issue and forced our hand in that regard. They didn’t expand, didn’t chase. They got into good counts and they did a lot of damage when they got there.

The loss forces Indiana to win out on Sunday now. Their day will start with a rematch against Southern Miss. The Golden Eagles, who lost 10-4 to Indiana on Friday, beat Northern Kentucky 6-0 on Saturday afternoon to stay alive. The game will start at Noon ET and will be available only on the ESPN-Plus streaming app. If they win, they’ll have to come back and beat Tennessee at 6 p.m. ET.

It was a rough night for Indiana starting pitcher Connor Foley. He has a high-90s fastball and can be overpowering at times, but he’s also just a sophomore and has dealt with wildness all season, walking 42 watchers in 60 innings before Saturday.

He walked seven and hit a batter in just 2 1/3 innings of work. He threw 91 pitches — just 44 for strikes — and allowed eight runs, all earned. Tennessee scored four runs in the second and five in the third to race out to a 9-0 lead.

“Connor is a terrific talent, but it’s an issue he’s battled throughout the year,” Mercer said of Foley. “I thought he held his composure fine and he competed, he just to continue to develop more skill. He’s still fairly new to pitching, and this is something he has to continue to battle. All the credit to them. They have an excellent offense, and they can make you pay when you’re running through an offense like that.

“Solo home runs won’t normally get you beat, but the free bases hurt, and they. took advantage of it.”

The Hoosiers got a three-run homer from designated hitter Devin Taylor in the third inning, and scored another run in the fourth after Tyler Cerny was hit by a pitch and scored on a double by Carter Mathison.

They threatened to get back in the game, but left the bases loaded in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth. They scored twice in the eighth with RBIs from Josh Pyne and Morgan Colopy.

Tennessee is now 52-11 on the season and 36-3 at home. They’ve won five straight regionals that they’ve hosted, and seem headed for another one. Indiana fell to 33-25-1.