A sparse crowd today to watch us pummel a terrible Columbia team. Columbia's starter had a weird delivery and threw a lot of junk, but we seemed to have figured him out when they yanked him. Still struggled to get guys home from 3rd base and less that 2 outs. I agree with starting Mace, but he was not good as his location was off. He did not walk a bunch of guys, but they hit him hard. Credit Columbia for not striking out much especially early. Butler was great and help settle things down. With a 6 run lead and 2 innings to play, Sully goes to Kirby MacMullen, which I agreed with b/c Butler threw a ton and I don;t think Sully wanted to use any of his other regulars. Kirby is not great, but he usually can throw strikes. Well as luck would have it, Kirby beaned the 1st two batters, and Sully immediately gave him the hook . so he had to go to Leftwich (who I know he did not want to use), but we tacked on enough runs in the bottom of the 8th so Leftwich only threw one inning.
Takeaways, Mace was no where near his last 3 outings, but Butler was great. Awesome to see Dalton get mulitiple hits, even tho Columbia pitching is terrible. Indy looked much better at plate. Nelly, Bell and Reese were not good at the plate when the game was close. A good start but must play better each game.
