INDIANAPOLIS – In yet another close affair, the University of Indianapolis baseball team dropped a midweek contest with the Purdue Northwest Pride, falling 4-2, sliding to 2-6 on the young season.
 
Diego Cardenas was solid as you can ask out of starter for five innings, limiting the Pride to just two hits on four strikeouts in the 18 batters he faced. The junior set a career-best in innings pitched in his first start from the mound.
 
Offensively, the only RBI came from Will Spear, who led the Hounds with a 2-3 performance and the lone extra-base hit for the Hounds.
 
INS & OUTS
With the Hounds just two days from their series with the Lakers, the Hounds needed length from their starter, and they got it with Cardenas not giving up a hit until the third, where he let out a pair of singles to the Pride, both that were stranded on base.
 
With their starter pitching a gem, the Hounds bats rewarded him with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. A triage of singles by Spear, Drew Donaldson and Easton Good loaded the bases allowing for a balk and an RBI groundout by Caleb Vaughn to give the Hounds their lone runs of the game.
 
A run in the sixth chipped away at the lead of the Hounds, with Steven Jones limited the damage with a pair of clutch strikeouts. The Pride did not want to be caged, however, as a one-out double set the stage for an eventual three-run top of the eighth inning where the Hounds employed three separate pitchers.
 
UP NEXT
The Hounds will begin their GLVC schedule this coming weekend in Rolla, Mo. as they take on the Missouri S&T Miners. The four-game set will begin on Friday, March 8 with a doubleheader set for Saturday and a single game on Sunday. The first pitch is scheduled for 3 p.m. on Friday.