TERRE HAUTE, Ind. – The Indiana State baseball team finished the 2015 season 28-26 to earn its seventh-straight winning season despite seven season-ending injuries. ISU had four wins over opponents who are hosting an NCAA Regional this postseason. The Sycamores took games from No.1 Vanderbilt and defeated Dallas Baptist twice. DBU has been ranked as high as 11th in NCAA polls. The Sycamores also knocked off Missouri State who is now ranked as high as 9th in the NCAA polls.
At the conclusion of the season, the Sycamores were ranked 90th out of 301 Division I programs in the WarrenNolan.com RPI rankings. The Sycamores ranked above Washington and Kansas State and just behind Wake Forest, and Texas. ISU earned the fourth-highest RPI ranking in the Missouri Valley as the MVC had three teams in the top 20. Dallas Baptist and Missouri State rank in the top 10 and will host an NCAA Regional this upcoming weekend, and Bradley finished 19th and earned an at-large bid to the NCAA Louisville Regional hosted by the Louisville Cardinals. The Missouri Valley was the fifth ranked conference in RPI, ranking above the Big Ten and Conference USA.
The Sycamores hit a rough patch in the middle of the season, falling to Southern Illinois and putting the Sycamores at 13-19 on the season. That was the farthest below the .500 mark ISU would be during the year. After that loss, Indiana State won 15 of its next 22 contests to improve to 28-26 and secure the winning season.
At the plate, ISU more than doubled its home run totals from 2014 to 2015. The Sycamores had two players hit over five home runs with Andy Young hitting seven and Jacob Hayes leading the team with nine. The nine home runs are the most since the 2012 season when Jeremy Lucas hit nine in 60 games. There were six hitters who hit multiple home runs. As a team, ISU hit for a .272 batting average, a point higher than 2014. Young drove in a team-high 42 runs and Hayes scored 39 times to lead the team. Landon Curry stole a team-high 13 bases to give him 66 in his career. Curry was also hit by 14 pitches which set a new school record of 56 hit by pitches in a career.
Indiana State's Jeff Degano emerged as the premier starting pitcher for ISU as he logged one of the most historical seasons on record. In his 99.0 innings, Degano earned an 8-3 record and struck out 126 hitters, tying him for the single season record in ISU history. Degano has a career 2.84 Earned Run Average which is the lowest career ERA for pitchers who have logged at least 100 innings. He also has the highest strikeout per nine innings pitched in ISU history at 10.87 in his career after setting the single season record at 11.45. Degano recorded six double-digit strikeout performances.
Ryan Keaffaber transitioned to a starters role after earning 11 saves in 2014. Keaffaber threw in 82.1 innings while earning a 2.73 ERA in his 17 appearances. Austin Conway emerged as ISU's closer after Keaffaber moved into the weekend rotation. Conway appeared in a team-high 29 games, logging 51.2 innings all in relief. Conway earned a record of 4-2 and a team-high eight saves on the year while holding opponents to a .179 batting average against.
For the latest information on the Sycamore Baseball team, make sure to visit GoSycamores.com. You can also find the team on social media including Facebook and Twitter.
