Life in the Valley

Indiana State didn’t need a big 8th-inning comeback this time.

No, by the time the 8th inning rolled around of Sunday’s Terre Haute Regional final, the Sycamores had already worked their magic to take an 11-8 lead, and Simon Gregersen made it stand up over the final 3 1/3 innings to get the save, as Indiana State downed Iowa, 11-8, to win the Terre Haute Regional and advance to Super Regionals next weekend. Indiana State, the #14 seed, is matched up with the winner of the Fayetteville Regional, which will be one of TCU (2-0), Arkansas, or Santa Clara. Arkansas is the #3 national seed and would host the Super Regional should the Razorbacks advance.

But to call what Indiana State (45-15) is doing magic might not be accurate. Or fair. The Sycamores just do whatever it takes to win baseball games. Sometimes, that’s pitching. Sometimes, it’s defense. And sometimes, it’s hitting. On days like Sunday, it required all 3 to beat a game Iowa team that had beaten North Carolina in an elimination game earlier in the day and finished its season with a 44-16 record.

Whatever impressive statistics other teams may have, Indiana State simply wins games – 45 of them now in 60 tries, and a 43-7 mark over the Sycamores’ last 50 gams (.860 winning percentage). From Gregersen’s pitching to finish it out, where he struck out 6 of the 12 batters he faced, to Keegan Watson (HR, 3 RBIs) or Grant Magill’s (3 RBIs) hitting, to Adam Pottinger’s defense, he of the tremendous throw from left field in the 7th to retire Michael Seegers at the plate in the 6th inning after a single, where Seegers represented the run that would have brought Iowa into an 8-8 tie.

Instead, it remained 8-7 Sycamores, and by the time Iowa finally did get its 8th run, it didn’t matter nearly as much thanks to Watson’s 3-run homer in the 7th that gave the Sycamores an 11-7 lead. It was the biggest lead for either team the entire game, one that was tied after the 2nd, 4th, and 5th innings, to go with 3 lead changes. The game was there at times for the Hawkeyes to take, but the Sycamores flatly refused. As they have all throughout the regional and really for the last 2 1/2 months now. Whatever it takes.

Now, the Sycamores are 2 wins away from the College World Series, where Indiana State appeared once, going 0-2 in 1986. There were no Super Regionals back then (the NCAA field was 40 teams then comprised of 8 regionals, where some had 4 teams and some had 6 – Indiana State won the 4-team Ann Arbor Regional to advance). Making history is nothing to this Indiana State group – it’s just do whatever you can do to help your teammates win baseball games, no matter the opponent.

And on this day of celebration, albeit painful given Iowa pitchers hit an obscene 10 Sycamore batters, Indiana State awaits its next opponent and won’t be awed, no matter the name on the front of their jerseys. And regardless of how this run turns out, the Sycamores have already made the school, Terre Haute, and the Missouri Valley Conference proud. Dreaming about Omaha is tantalizing now, but Indiana State must maintain focus now on winning its next game, then another, and the history will take care of itself.