To kick off its first home matchup, the University of Indianapolis baseball team went 2-1 last weekend against the Notre Dame College Falcons.
The Hounds took their only loss of the series in the first game on Feb. 17. The scores remained close until the top of the 4th inning, when the Falcons scored six runs. The Hounds answered back with six of their own, beginning with a double from junior third baseman Storm Joop. Junior shortstop Blake Richardson followed with a double of his own, and sophomore Kyle Orloff hit a homer to bring in the last two runs which tied up the score.
In the top of the sixth, the Falcons scored another three runs, and one more in the top of the seventh. The Hounds trailed close behind with three of their own in the bottom of the 7th, and another in the 8th to tie up the game at 11. A Falcons’ single to right field scored the last run they needed to win the game 12-11.
The next day, the Hounds started off scoring 13 runs in the first three innings and only giving up one. In the fourth, the Falcons scored one run on error and three more with a triple to center field. Notre Dame scored another seven runs over the next three innings, and only allowed two from UIndy. Sophomore outfielder Devon Hensley scored the last run with a double to right field that scored redshirt junior utility Brendan Dudas, winning the game 16-12.
Previously the Hounds began their season with a three game series against the Coker College Cobras win 18-4 win on Feb. 12, a loss 9-4 on Feb. 11 and a win 5-2 on Feb. 10.
After the season opener, Associate Head Baseball Coach Al Ready had a positive outlook on the season.
“We had some ups and downs. It was a good weekend overall, and I was happy with what I saw overall,” Ready said. “Anytime you win a series, you can’t be too disappointed, but we did have some trouble falling behind in the count, some of our pitchers fell behind in the count and got into some tough hitter counts 2-0, 2-1 and 3-1. Doing that consistently makes it really hard on yourself because you have to throw strikes eventually. And when the hitter knows what’s coming, it’s a lot easier to hit, and that’s what happened in that middle game. But overall, it was a good weekend, and I was impressed with our squad.”
The final game of the series ended with the Hounds over the Cobras in a 18-4 blowout win on Feb. 12.
UIndy managed 21 hits throughout the game to help with their win. Redshirt freshman outfielder Nick Miller contributed to the Greyhounds’ first point after hitting an RBI in the first inning. Besides Miller, getting points on the board was senior infielder John Eberhardt who hitting a homerun down left center, bringing UIndy’s lead to 4-0.
Coker brought the score to 4-3 in the bottom of the third, making the game a close one until UIndy broke away in the sixth inning and made the score 8-3. The Hounds scored four runs in the eighth inning and 6 runs in the ninth.
Only scoring in two innings, the Hounds fell 9-4 to the Cobras on Feb. 11.
UIndy was scoreless until Richardson hit a double toward the left corner, which allowed Eberhardt and sophomore shortstop Macy Holdsworth to score. Also in that inning was an RBI from Joop. Richardson also hit the final RBI after a single toward centerfield in the top of the sixth sending Miller home.
The first game of the series and the first game of the season was a 5-2 win for UIndy over Coker College.
Falling behind after the first inning by one, the Hounds took the lead the following inning after Joop hit a single with two RBI’s in which Richardson and Eberhardt scored. Redshirt junior catcher Demetrius Webb would then hit a single up the middle in the sixth inning, with one RBI, and then again in the eighth inning, with two RBI’s ending the Hounds’ score at five. The pitching staff also played an important role in the game, keeping the Cobras scoreless for the final six innings and having 14 strikeouts
Going into the series against University of Missouri St. Louis, Ready discussed what the team needs to work on for the upcoming series and season.
“We’re only playing three game series until conference starts for these four or five weekends. So with us being down a couple of pitchers, it makes it easier for our pitching staff, but I think the key to this weekend is going to come down to our bullpen,” Ready said. “Offensively, we’re going to grind out RI bats. We’re going to score some runs, and score enough runs to win. Each game, it’s a matter, whether we can keep the other team off the board. From last weekend, what I’ve seen up to this point, I think we will. At this point in the season one of your concerns is your starting pitchers are not up to seven innings. Each one only went four innings this past weekend. So hopefully our starting pitchers will be able to give us another inning or two this weekend and get them up to five or six innings. And again, like I said, our bullpen is definitely the strength of our pitching staff, and going into this weekend, it will definitely be a good weekend.”
Redshirt senior first baseman and designated hitter Dylan Jones is positive about how the team is looking this season, as long as the players works hard.
“We definitely have a lot of stuff to work on, [and] definitely see a lot of potential in this team, because we are deep in a lot of spots. I’m really excited to see our bullpen throughout this weekend, and we’re definitely deep enough that we should be able to make a run at the end of the season. We have things that we need to work on as a team, things that if we do [them] throughout the season and improve on them, we’re going to be in a good place at the end of the year.”
After the season opener, Ready is looking forward to the rest of the season.
“It’s just a wonderful group of guys. These guys have been working their butts off all year long, and I couldn’t be more proud of how hard they’ve worked and how hard they’ve prepared,” Ready said. “Obviously, you have to play the games but I’m happy with our bunch and moving forward. I’m excited for the rest of this season.”
The University of Indianapolis Greyhounds will head to Evansville Indiana to face-off against the University of Missouri St. Louis Lions at 1:30 pm on Feb. 24.
