EVANSVILLE, Ind. – The No. 24-ranked UIndy baseball team opened up play at the Southern Indiana Dunn Hospitality Invitational on Saturday afternoon, taking on Missouri-St. Louis in the first of two showdowns between the GLVC cross-division rivals.
 
Things didn't get off to a favorable start for UIndy (5-2), as the Tritons (0-1) jumped out to a 4-0 lead before the Hounds came to bat.
 
Needing to stop the bleeding, the Greyhounds turned the ball over to Michael Schalasky and the sophomore was dominant in relief. Schalasky held the Tritons to just one run in 6 1/3 innings while the bats took over in a 13-6 UIndy win.
 
Jake Shaw made the start for the Hounds and retired two of the first three batters he faced. But his control betrayed him and the Tritons were able to score four times on six walks in the innings. Schalasky took over with two outs and the bases loaded in the first, and he got out of the jam with an inning-ending strikeout, the first of eight straight retired.
 
John Eberhardt got the Hounds on the board in the bottom of the first, continuing his torrid start to the year with a three-run home run to cut the lead to one. Nick Miller tied the game up in the second with an RBI triple and would score the go-ahead run one batter later on a ground out from Kyle Orloff.
 
Demitrius Webb put the Hounds up by a pair with an RBI single in the third, and UIndy added to the lead in the fourth with two more runs to make it 8-4.
 
UMSL cut the deficit to three with a run in the fifth, but wouldn't come any closer as UIndy put the game out of reach in the sixth. Macy Holdsworth, Blake Richardson and Colton White all collected RBIs in the inning and Eberhardt would score on a balk to make it 12-5. Webb capped the scoring for the Hounds with an RBI ground out in the eighth.
 
Schalasky allowed four hits, walked two and struck out eight on his way to his first win of the year. Five Greyhounds recorded two hits on the day and Eberhardt led the Hounds with four runs driven in, giving him 16 through seven games.
 
The Greyhounds close out play at the Dunn Hospitality Invitational on Sunday afternoon, taking on another regional opponent in the Wayne State Warriors. First pitch is set for approximately 2:30 p.m.
 
Notes
-Webb and Holdsworth both returned to action after missing the last four games.
-Jake Sprinkle made his first appearance since May 8, 2015, tossing one inning in relief.
-John Hendry made his first career appearance in a UIndy uniform, pinch hitting for Richardson in the eighth.