Life in the Valley

In reality, the Indiana State Sycamores played really well in today’s 4-1 loss to TCU in Fort Worth, in the first game of the Terre Haute/Fort Worth Super Regional best-of-3.

Unfortunately, “really well,” isn’t going to be good enough to beat this TCU team, one that’s now 18-2 in its last 20 games and which has won 10 straight. And whatever next gear is required for the Sycamores (45-16) to be successful, they’re going to have find it quick, needing to win both Saturday and Sunday to take the series and advance to the College World Series for the first time since 1986.

On the surface from a pitching standpoint, the Sycamores got all they could ask for from Friday starter Matt Jachec, who gave up 4 runs on 7 hits with 3 walks and 7 strikeouts in 8 innings and 107 pitches. This against a team averaging 11.5 runs per game through the conference and NCAA tournaments so far. Three of TCU’s runs came on a pair of homers in the 2nd inning – a solo shot by 9th-place hitter Austin Davis and a 2-run shot off the bat of Cole Fontenelle. The final Horned Frogs run scored in the top of the 9th (Indiana State was still the home team today despite the game being played in Fort Worth) on a Kurtis Byrne sacrifice fly.

Down 4-0 in the bottom of the 9th, Indiana State avoided the shutout when Keegan Watson hit a solo homer to right field.

That homer came off TCU reliever Luke Savage. But there was no offense to be had at all against Horned Frogs starter Kole Klecker. A freshman from Chandler, Ariz., Klecker got through 7 innings on 101 pitches (4.81 ppo), striking out 9, walking just 1, and allowing no runs on 3 hits. The Sycamores put 2 runners on in the 2nd inning with 2 out, after Watson’s leadoff single and a 2-out walk to Grant Magill. But Klecker struck out Seth Gergely to end the threat and keep the game scoreless.

After TCU took the lead in the 3rd, Klecker retired the side in order in both the 3rd and 4th, 3 of the outs coming by strikeouts. He hit Miguel Rivera to start the 5th, but Indiana State couldn’t take advantage.

But it was the 6th inning that might have been the Sycamores’ unluckiest frame. Leading off, Josue Urdaneta drilled a line drive past Keckler and seemingly on into center field, but the ball was curving toward short, and shortstop Anthony Silva instead had an easy catch for the first out. This was compounded when Luis Hernandez followed by hammering a ball to straight away center that banged off the wall, just short of a homer. But had Urdaneta’s liner gotten its just reward of a base hit, he would have scored, or the Sycamores would have had 2nd and 3rd with 0 outs. Instead, Hernandez was at second with 1 out, Klecker struck out Adam Pottinger, then got Watson to pop up and the inning was over.

Indiana State’s stellar defense had a shining moment in the 2nd inning, when with 1 on, Silva doubled to right center, which looked like it was going to give TCU a 1-0 lead. But Gergely came up with the ball, fired to the cutoff man Randal Diaz, whose throw home to Grant Magill easily beat Byrne trying to score, keeping the game at 0-0.

But Klecker was too much, and the worse news for Indiana State is that Savage was the lone arm used out of what is a deep TCU bullpen. The defense and the pitching was there, but the Sycamore bats will have to wake up if Indiana State’s wonderful 2023 baseball journey is going to last another day. While also hoping MVC Pitcher of the Year Connor Fenlong has another great performance up his sleeve.