INDIANAPOLIS – The Greyhound baseball team made it eight straight wins at Greyhound Park on Friday, opening the GLVC slate with a pair of wins over St. Joseph's College.
 
Alex Ritchie's two-run home run in the sixth inning of game one proved to be the go-ahead tally as UIndy pulled away late for an 8-3 win. In the second tilt, junior Jake Shaw scattered four hits over six innings to improve to 3-2 as the Hounds held on for a 3-1 victory.
 
Colin Hawk and Anthony Asalon had four hits each for the Greyhounds with Hawk driving in three runs in game one. With the sweep, the Greyhounds move to 15-5 overall and a perfect 2-0 in league play. The losses drop St. Joseph's to 10-11 overall and 0-2 in GLVC play.
 
GAME ONE: UIndy 8 – St. Joseph's 3
 
Hawk put the Greyhounds out in front early with a single in the bottom of the first that brought Ritchie home from second and spotted the Hounds a 1-0 lead. Four innings later, St. Joseph's Riley Benner brought the Pumas back to even, taking a 3-2 pitch from Matthew Kaplanis and depositing it over the left field wall for a lead off blast.
 
UIndy answered in the bottom of the inning thanks to some clutch two-out hitting from Joe Trennepohl, who singled home Kyle Orloff to restore the Hounds' one-run lead.
 
Kaplanis retired the first two St. Joseph's batters in the sixth, but surrendered three straight singles that resulted in two runs for the Pumas, giving them a 3-2 lead and chasing Kaplanis from the game.
 
Facing their first deficit of the afternoon, the Greyhounds used a two-out rally of their own to re-take the lead for good. After an Asalon single, Ritchie stepped to the dish and launched an 0-1 pitch over the left field fence to make it 4-3 Hounds.
 
From there, the UIndy bullpen did their job keeping the Pumas in check and the offense gave them some insurance to work with in the eighth. Asalon, Hawk and Orloff each had run-scoring hits that resulted in four Greyhound runs that put game one out of reach.
 
Adam Cornwell (2-0) tossed one inning in relief of Kaplanis to earn the win. Kaplanis worked 5 2/3 innings, giving up three runs on eight hits with one walk and three strikeouts. Dylan Stutsman retired all six batters he faced to nail down his sixth save of the year.
 
GAME TWO: UIndy 3 – St. Joseph's 1
 
The Greyhounds got all the offense they would need in the bottom of the first, getting one out RBI singles from Orloff and Joe Trennepohl, the latter scoring a pair of runs that made it 3-0 Hounds.
 
That proved to be more than enough support for Shaw, who mowed down Pumas batters over six innings of work. Following a two-out single in the top of the second, the Fredericton, New Brunswick native set down 10 of the next 11 hitters.
 
Shaw surrendered his only run of the day with two outs in the sixth, but was able to escape the inning without any further damage. Stutsman took over from there, closing out the game for his second save of the day and seventh on the year.
 
The two clubs will be back on the diamond on Saturday with another set for noon at Greyhound Park.