Indiana State pounds Illini pitching for five extra-base hits including two home runs in a 13-2 domination in the first elimination game of the NCAA Lexington Regional on Sunday.

Matt Stevens, IlliniGuys Staff Writer

June 2, 2024

LEXINGTON, Ky.  — Everything ended for Illinois Sunday afternoon at Proud Park.

Whether it was the positive vibes and momentum, to the pitching depth and the offensive confidence, nothing went right after the opening round victory.

Indiana State rode a seemingly never-ending seven-run third frame to a dominating 13-2 victory over the Illini in the elimination game of the 2024 NCAA Lexington Regional.

The Sycamores (43-14), which were fresh off a 6-4 win to eliminate Western Michigan on Saturday afternoon, didn’t wait long to exact revenge for the Friday night loss to the Illini. Indiana State, which led the Missouri Valley Conference in nearly every single major offensive statistical category including batting average (.314), hits (296), slugging (.588) and on-base percentage (.419) jumped all over Illinois sophomore Sam Reed for five runs on four hits and ease up on Illini freshman Regan Hall. By the time the top half of the frame was over, Indiana State had brought 12 batters to the plate, recorded six hits and the damage was only discontinued after the third out was made at home on a throw by Ryan Moerman.

After the 8-inning gem performance by Jack Crowder and an inability to pull off an upset of No. 2 overall seed Kentucky on Saturday, Illinois simply didn’t have enough reliable pitching or a confident enough offense to win three games in a row.

“I don't feel like we were tight at all…I didn't feel like they were tight from the standpoint of -- sometimes you get tight because you have so much apprehension, and I don't want to say you're afraid, but you're looking at things that could go wrong. I didn't ever feel that way,” Illinois head coach Dan Hartleb said. “You just get momentum at times, and we had a lot of momentum (in Big Ten Conference play) and then the last two weeks, who knows why that happens. To win late, you have to be hot. You can see that throughout this entire tournament. You see it in Major League Baseball. For some reason we weren't hot the last two games, so it came to an end for us.”

After Reed and Hall, Illinois threw out four more relievers (Ben Plumley, Korey Bunselmeyer, Will Lavin and Joe Glassey) but Indiana State simply piled on six more runs in that final 5 2/3 innings.

Illinois (35-21) finished the last two games against the aces of both Kentucky and Indiana State without a single extra-base hit.

Indiana State right-hander Brennyn Cutts, the 2024 Missouri Valley Conference Pitcher of the Year selection, cruised through the first six innings in just 69 pitches while allowing just three hits. Cutts was able to work out of slight jams by manufacturing three double plays to end the third, fourth and seventh innings.

Cutts (7-1), who was coming off a rough outing in the conference tournament, finished his first career complete to give Indiana State’s bullpen an afternoon of rest before the Sycamores will face host Kentucky late in the evening in the regional final.

We didn't know what we would get today,” Indiana State head coach Mitch Hannahs said. “We saw flashes of it in the conference tournament, but that's the guy that we watched all year. So, it was great to see him have a day like that, and it was obviously something that our team needed.”

Illinois took back-to-back losses to a pair of Friday night starters in Kentucky’s Trey Pooser and Cutts. The Sycamores pitcher, who is from Greenup, Ill., who was making his NCAA Regional debut after being the mid-week starter on the 2023 ISU squad that advanced to a Super Regional round for the first time in school history.

Cutts, a 6-foot-3 and 235-pound prospect who has perfected relies on a three-pitch mix of fastball, slider and changeup combination, managed to stay loose during a 20-minute rain delay before the bottom of the ninth to finish his complete game victory.

“From that third inning after all those runs, I didn't feel like I could throw it over the plate and just kind of let them get themselves out and kind of work from there,” Cutts said. “You don't have to be perfect all the time. You can just kind of work the corners, but you can just kind of let it play a little bit more and then let them pound on the ground because I know our defense is one of the best in the country.”

The last time Illinois won an elimination game in a NCAA regional was June 5, 2011, when the Illini eliminated host Cal State Fullerton before being blown out later in that evening 14-2 to Stanford.

The 4-5-6 of the Illinois order (Vytas Valincius, Moerman and Jacob Schroeder) continued to scuffle as they finished with just two total hits and that trio, which had been so powerful for the Illini in Big Ten Conference play, ended this 2024 postseason 10 for 63 with 19 strikeouts.

“I don't know what it was but we just kind of got cold, I guess,” Moerman said. “That happens. I’m not saying we couldn't hit, but we didn't hit to our full potential. And it sucks that it happened at this time of the year, but it doesn't take away from what all those guys did the whole season.”

In his final at-bat of the 2024 season, Moerman added his team-leading 19th home run to add the second run of the afternoon.

“Yeah. I wasn't trying to do anything else but homer there,” Moerman said as he nervously looked over at his head coach at the post-game media conference table.

“Maybe you should have tried that more often,” Hartleb said with a smile and laugh.