ISU baseball ends first leg of Southern trip 3-0, beats USF 5-0

Feb. 20—Indiana State delivered a strong follow-up to its NCAA super-regional qualifier 2023 season by sweeping the first three games of its 2024 schedule, as the Sycamores continued their Florida trip.

ISU beat Louisville 8-7 and Connecticut 2-1 to open the USF tournament at Tampa over the weekend, then capped that leg of their journey with Monday's 5-0 shutout of tournament host South Florida.

Coach Mitch Hannahs' squad is now 3-0.

Luke Hayden and Cameron Holycross combined for the shutout on the mound, while Luis Hernandez drove in three runs.

Hayden (1-0), making his starting debut with the Sycamores (3-0), was masterful over 6.0 innings of work surrendering four hits while striking out five against the USF (0-2) lineup. The Sycamore right-hander allowed just two runners in scoring position in the game over 77 pitches.

Holycross got the save, pitching the final three innings in relief. The right-hander, ISU's earned-run average leader last season at 1.98 mark, faced one batter over the minimum and struck out three to retire USF and close out the win, the ISU sports information office reported.

The Sycamores struck early with a pair of unearned runs in the top of the third inning as the Sycamores took advantage of a South Florida error and Grant Magill's hustle around the base paths to take the lead. Dominic Listi reached on a throwing error by the USF second baseman and the ball ricocheted in front of the Bulls' dugout allowing Magill to score from second ahead of the tag at the plate to give ISU the 1-0 lead. Hernandez followed three pitches later with an RBI single to left scoring Randal Diaz to double up the Indiana State lead.

Hayden continued to set the Bulls down in the contest facing one batter over the minimum from the third through the fifth innings including getting a pickoff at first to end the third frame and keep the ISU lead intact.

Parker Stinson added insurance with a one-out solo home run in the top of the sixth that cleared the right field wall in front of the USF scoreboard. Luis Hernandez added a two-run single in the top of the seventh scoring Josue Urdaneta and Diaz to provide the final 5-0 margin.

Holycross retired the first six batters he faced in his first relief appearance of the year before surrendering a leadoff double in the bottom of the ninth. He bounced back to retire the final three outs with Adam Pottinger corralling a fly ball in centerfield to end the game.

Diaz, Hernandez and Urdaneta all posted multi-hit games on their way to combining for six of ISU's eight hits in the contest. Stinson's home run marked ISU's lone extra-base hit in the game.

Indiana State remains in the Sunshine State traveling to North Port, Fla., and CoolToday Park, the spring-training home of the Atlanta Braves, where they'll face Florida Gulf Coast at 7 p.m. Wednesday.