INDIANAPOLIS – The Greyhound baseball team returned to their home field on Friday afternoon, looking to extend a three game winning streak in the first of four contests against the Lake Erie Storm at Greyhound Park.
 
Matt Kaplanis turned in a quality start for the Greyhounds, benefitting from a five-run third inning that put the Greyhounds ahead for good on their way to a 7-5 win. Colin Hawk had three singles while Brady Thomas and Kyle Orloff each collected a pair of hits to help UIndy run their record to 5-2 on the year.
 
Nigel Williams had three hits and Lucas Raley drove in two for the Storm, who dropped to 3-4 with the loss.
 
Kaplanis held the Storm hitless the first time through the order and the Greyhounds used timely hits and took advantage of a pair of Storm errors to bring five runs across in the third.
 
After UIndy loaded the bases with no one out, they got the first run of the game when Brady Thomas was awarded first base due to catcher's interference on an 0-2 count. On batter later, Storm Joop drove home a run with a sacrifice fly and the Hounds added another on the play thanks to an errant throw to third, allowing Colin Hawk to score.
 
Orloff followed that up with an RBI single and two batters later, Joe Trennepohl tacked on the final run of the inning with an RBI double down the left field line.
 
Lake Erie got on the board with two outs in the top of the fifth thanks to an Austin Bovanzi RBI single and two innings later, cut the UIndy lead to 5-3 with a pair of two out, run scoring singles. With the tying run at the plate, Kaplanis got his biggest strikeout of the day to end the seventh and complete his day.
 
The Greyhound picked up their senior hurler in the bottom of the inning when Joop came in to score on a Lake Erie fielding error to make it 6-3. Thomas added to the lead in the bottom of the eighth inning, executing a perfect hit-and-run play through the right side that brought Alex Ritchie in from second to make it a four run game.
 
Lake Erie got back-to-back singles to open the top of the ninth off Jeff Lavin, drawing Dylan Stutsman out of the pen to nail down the save. After retiring the first two batters he faced, Stutsman allowed a deep double to Raley that scored two and brought the tying run to the plate. But the sophomore hurler dug in and induced a game-ending groundout to short on the very next batter.
 
Kaplanis improved to 3-0 on the year, giving up three runs and scattering eight with one walk and six strikeouts in seven innings of work. David Lemasters dropped to 1-2 for the Storm after surrendering five runs on eight hits with four walks and five strikeouts in six innings.
 
The two teams will be back at it tomorrow at Greyhound Park for a pair of games starting at noon.