Baseball programs at universities go through the fall in many different ways to get the team ready for the spring season starts. Some schools only do scrimmages within the program. Some will do it where they do scrimmages within the program and against other schools so they can have game like situations in the fall. Some universities will even do a full fall season that will help them be game ready for when the real season starts in late February or early March depending on what the school likes to do.

This fall was different for every school this year as the Covid-19 pandemic was still ravishing the world resulting in schools not being able to travel to other schools and causing universities to create strict protocols that would also limit what the teams could do on a daily basis. This was especially true for the Indiana Hoosiers baseball team as they had to find ways to practice and improve the team while also keeping everyone safe during the pandemic.

“We definitely have been doing a great job of keeping our distance and making sure everybody’s staying safe, checking their temperatures daily, and making sure everybody’s doing their part,” Mitch Robinson said.

The players were able to show off their talent to the fans and scouts. Both the pitchers and hitters showed off all the work they have put in during the fall semester. Local Bloomington townies came to watch and MLB scouts came out to look at the players as well. This will be the only game like situations the team will have in the fall as they prepare for a season that looks to be conference play only for IU and the rest of the Big Ten schools. This is also a way for the players to get some bragging rights over each other from this series.

For some, this is their last Hoosier Series and even though they were not able to experience the full series experience, they still enjoyed it while it was going on. “It’s definitely different, not what you’d expect, you don’t really get to enjoy the full experience, but we’re just pretty lucky to be out here at all and getting to play,” Cole Barr said. “I’ll take what I can get at this point.”

The series was a best of seven series where players became the captains and managers of the two teams that the captains would draft for the series. One team was called The Law Office of Bierman and Behrmann, led by captains Gabe Bierman and Zach Behrmann, facing Sommer School, led by Tommy Sommer. The Law Office of Bierman and Behrmann won the series 4-2 to close out the fall season for the Hoosiers. The Hoosiers will now go into the winter intersession and practice on their own or get some well deserved rest after the crazy fall they have had.

Expectations are high as the team prepares for the upcoming spring season after completing the Hoosier Series. “I think we’re going to win the Big Ten again,” Hanna Chait said.

“I think we are going to have a very good team,” Barr said. “We are very close knit and I know that really translates later on in the postseason, the regionals, and Big Ten Tournament so I’m pretty excited. I think we’re definitely in a good position to win the Big Ten and hopefully host a regional and go on from there.”

“So when (the season) happens, we’re going to be the Big Ten Champs and we’re going to Omaha,” Robinson claims.

To follow and hear more news about the Indiana University Baseball team, check out their twitter page or check out the Indiana University athletics website.