Late homer stuns UK, puts Indiana in regional driver's seat
Indiana catcher Peter Serruto leaped to celebrate with his teammates after hitting a go-ahead three-run homer in the seventh inning of Saturday's NCAA Tournament Lexington Regional game against Kentucky. (Jeff Drummond/Cats Illustrated)
Jeff Drummond • CatsIllustrated
Managing Editor Edit
@JDrumUK
LEXINGTON, Ky. -- Down 0-2 in the count with two outs in the seventh inning and his team trailing Kentucky, Indiana's Peter Serruto saved perhaps the best at-bat of his baseball life for when it mattered most.
Serruto, a fifth-year senior who entered the game with a .226 career batting average and only five home runs to his credit, worked the count full against UK ace Zack Lee before driving the game's decisive pitch the opposite way over the right-field wall at Kentucky Proud Park to rally the Hoosiers to a 5-3 win at the NCAA Tournament Lexington Regional.
"I think that takes the cake, a pretty awesome moment," said the Indiana catcher and nine-hole batter. "I think that's No. 1, for sure... It was a dream come true running around the bases."
Indiana head coach Jeff Mercer acknowledged that sometimes the game of baseball writes a special script like the one Serruto encountered. A pair of injuries had placed him in a position to be the Hoosiers' primary catcher the last six weeks of the season.
"I've learned in life God works in mysterious ways," Mercer said. "Sometimes, it's just meant to be, and there couldn't be a better kid in the world than good Pete Serruto to do that.
"I don't know that I had envisioned that... but every now and then you capture a little magic."
The blast helped Indiana (43-18) advance to the championship bracket where it will await the winner of Sunday's elimination game between Kentucky and West Virginia. The winner of that Noon ET game between the Wildcats and Mountaineers will return to the field to face the Hoosiers at 6 p.m. ET.
If either UK or WVU defeats Indiana on Sunday night, the regional championship game will be played on Monday.
Kentucky (37-18) looked like it was in strong position to reach the championship bracket on this day. Lee gave a solo home run to Indiana shortstop Phillip Glasser on the first pitch of the game, but he dominated the next 6.2 innings until Serruto's unlikely long ball.
Lee (5-3) allowed only five hits over seven innings, walked none, and struck out nine.
"The home run in the seventh does not take away how well he threw," UK head coach Nick Mingione said. "He cruised for a really long time, and he attacked the strike zone. No walks. Got our defense involved. Just give (IU) a lot of credit for coming back late in the game. That's hard to do."
Connor Foley (4-2) was the beneficiary of the Hoosiers' late scoring. He earned the win by working the final 2.2 innings, surviving a warning-track fly ball off the bat of UK's Devin Burkes and a deep drive down the left-field line by Emilien Pitre that carried just foul in the ninth inning. Both were dangerously close to being three-run homers by the Cats.
Said a relieved Foley: "To be honest, I thought they were" when they came off the bat.
Now, the Cats will need three straight wins if they want to advance to only the second super-regional appearance in program history.
"We've got the right group of guys in the locker room (to bounce back)," said UK first baseman Hunter Gilliam. "... I know people could look at this as a bad thing, but we're excited because it means more games together."
