Miami Meets Indiana in Mid-Week Home-and-Home
4/23/2012 12:00:00 AM | Baseball
April 23, 2012
Miami plays its second-to-last non-conference series this week when it takes on former coach Tracy Smith and his Indiana Hoosiers. The teams will play in Bloomington on Tuesday at 4 p.m., then in Oxford at 6 p.m. the next day.
The RedHawks (20-20) have won three of their last four games, including a series win against Bowling Green over the weekend.
Indiana (18-22) stepped out of Big 10 Conference play over the weekend, taking two of three from Georgia Southern. That followed three straight losses.
The Hoosiers are the third Big 10 school that Miami has faced this season. It split a pair of games with Michigan State in February, then lost to Ohio State earlier this month.
Despite a 1-for-17 slump over the last four games, freshman Matt Honchel continues to lead the team in hitting. He is batting .374, his lowest mark since going 3-for-4 at Eastern Michigan on March 23. Still, Honchel has 17 multiple-hit games this year and has posted three hitting streaks of eight games or more.
Junior Nate Bowles is next among active batters at .336, with John Crummy and Kevin Bower just behind at .333. Bower tops the club in runs batted in (36) and is second in home runs (two), while Bryce Redeker has a team-best four homers and 33 RBIs.
As a team, Miami is hitting .297, but has seven players with an average above .300.
Miami will send sophomore right-hander Charles Zubrod to the mound in the first game of the series. He is has pitched well this season, as a 3.35 ERA shows, but only has a 1-3 record to show for it.
Zubrod has 10 appearances this season, five in a starting role, including Miami (Fla.) and Ohio State. In 40.1 innings pitched, he has struck out 22, while walking only 10.
Indiana will counter with redshirt sophomore Walker Stadler, who is making his frst start after nine appearances in relief. He is 1-0 with a 5.54 ERA this season.
Neither school has announced its starter for Wednesday's contest.
