Matt Ernest Joins Players On The CB360 Two Sport Report

Matt Ernest is now a two sport athlete at Indiana. (IU Photo)

and Casey Smith will join the Hoosiers at the start of the spring semester.

Ernest is a Crown Point, IN native who has caught 10 passes for 87 yards as a receiver over the last two seasons for Bill Lynch’s Indiana football team.  He played in each of IU’s 12 football games in 2009 and caught a touchdown vs. Ohio State.

Ernest, 6’2 – 188 lbs, is a righthand pitcher who earned four letters at Crown Point High School.  He was the 2006 Indiana Gatorade Football Player of the Year.  He will go through spring drills in 2010 with the football team and play for the baseball team.

Andrew Means (2006-2008) is the only other person to play both football and baseball at IU under head coach Tracy Smith.  However, former IU outfielder Kipp Schutz spent some time on Tom Crean’s Hoosier basketball team during the 2008-2009 season.

Ernest will be added to the Collegebaseball360.com Two Sport Reports, which have chronicled the exploits of college baseball players who have been busy with other

Casey Smith is IU head coach Tracy Smith's son. (IU Photo)

sports this fall.

Smith’s son, Casey Smith, is the other additiion to the IU staff.  The younger Smith was 7-2 with 45 strikeouts in 43 innings of work as a senior for Bloomington North High School in 2009.

“Obviously, it is an interesting scenario with Casey being my son, and the fact that he is graduating high school early. That said, Casey was presented with some outstanding opportunities at other Division I programs this fall, but ultimately decided he wanted to play for Indiana,” Smith said. “When he made the initial decision to attend IU, we kicked around the idea of him enrolling early because of our need for pitching this spring given the number of underclass pitchers we lost to the draft. He was all for it, and we think he’ll give us some innings this season.”