In his last pitch of the 2014 season, Indiana closer-turned-starter Scott Effross allowed a walk-off homer to Stanford’s Tommy Edman in Bloomington, a shot that sent Stanford to the NCAA Super Regional and ended Indiana’s season prematurely. His first pitch of the 2015 season was also to Tommy Edman, this time on Opening Day at Sunken Diamond with a temperature of 79 degrees at first pitch — it was 31 degrees in Bloomington at game-time.
Efross got Edman to ground out in that at-bat, and then continued to stymie the young Stanford young lineup on Friday, leading Indiana to a 4-2 victory to kick off the 2015 season.
The No. 22 Cardinal (0-1) were held at bay by the Hoosiers (1-0) all afternoon: After a RBI double from freshman Matt Winaker in the fourth inning, their pitchers retired 15 of the next 16 Cardinal hitters.
“They just played better than we did,” said head coach Mark Marquess. “There were four three-ball counts all game. We weren’t swinging at everything. They did a real good job.”
Freshman starter Cal Quantrill held Indiana to just one run through 5.2 innings, departing with the score even at one. He struck out six over the course of the outing, keeping the Hoosier hitters off-balance by mixing in his breaking pitches at any given point in an at-bat.
“We’ve worked on it a ton. The sliders ready and the change-up’s ready, and I don’t care if it’s 3-2, 3-1, 0-2, I’ll throw it in whatever count,” Quantrill said. “I’m okay with the outing. A couple times during the game, I thought I could’ve been better with the change-up and breaking ball. But all in all, it was alright.”
But the game got away from the Cardinal after their bullpen surrendered a couple of two-out walks that extended the seventh and eighth innings for the Hoosier hitters.
After coming on in relief of Quantrill in the sixth inning, junior Logan James looked strong, recording three outs over his first five pitches. But in the seventh, he walked Indiana’s No. 9 hitter, junior Brian Wilhite, on six pitches, setting up the game’s most consequential at-bat.
Senior Casey Rodrigue took a 2-1 delivery from James over the right-field fence, giving the Hoosiers a 3-1 advantage and quieting the 1,248 fans in attendance at Sunken Diamond. It was the first home run James had given up since the 2013 season — he did not allow a homer over 61 innings pitched in 2014.
Indiana added an insurance run in the top of the eighth, after junior Gabe Cramer allowed another two-out walk. He jumped out 0-2 on junior Nick Ramos — just a strike away from getting out of the inning — but Ramos took the next delivery up the middle for a RBI single, extending the Hoosier lead to 4-1.
Stanford’s offense struggled throughout, just managing one run on five hits against Effross and then just one run on four hits against the Indiana bullpen — that one run and three of those four hits coming with two outs in the bottom of the ninth.
“In college baseball, if you throw strikes you’re going to see good things. That’s what their pitching staff did,” said junior Drew Jackson, who returned to his starting spot at shortstop after missing the end of the 104 season with a finger injury. “They didn’t walk many guys and they made their defense work.
“We were hitting the ball, we didn’t strike out too much, but we were hitting the balls right at guys. We just need to get more runners on early in the innings cause that’s where we faulted.”
Five freshmen made their collegiate debuts on Opening Day — three of them in the starting lineup: catcher Bryce Carter, first baseman Matt Winaker and third baseman Jesse Kuet.
The series continues on Saturday at 6 p.m. with a matchup between Stanford junior Marcus Brakeman and Indiana junior Christian Morris. The game will be televised on Pac-12 Networks.
Contact Jordan Wallach at jwallach ‘at’ stanford.edu.