INDIANAPOLIS – The UIndy baseball team, after dropping the first game of their NCAA tournament journey, has fought all the way back from the depths of elimination to force a game seven at the NCAA Division II Midwest Regional II.
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A day removed from ending the season of perennial-rival Grand Valley State, they Greyhounds played season-ender once again, toppling the No. 7-seed Trevecca in game one 10-4. With the fire at their backs from two-straight wins, the Hounds unloaded against the No. 3-seed Maryville Saints, piling on 19 runs in what became a 19-9 victory.
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The Hounds and Saints will now face off in a single winner-take-all contest tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Greyhound Park. The winner of the nine-inning affair will load the buses to Saginaw Valley in Michigan for the super-regional.
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The Hounds were successful in every aspect of the game, tallying 29 hits across 18 innings – eight for extra bases – resulting in 28 total runs of Greyhound offense. In game two, every Greyhound starter recorded a hit, RBI and run scored. Defensively, the Hounds had just two errors on the day, while the pitching staff came up big.
Carter Nowak, despite not getting the win in game one, was just what UIndy needed, going six innings, while punching out four.
Dawson Gabe kept that going against Maryville, tossing seven strong, punching out eight for his fourth win of the season.
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Easton Good was the catalyst for a majority of the Greyhound offense, batting .667 on the day with nine total bases. He tallied five RBIs on six hits, slugging 1.000 across the two games.
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GAME 1 | 2-seed UIndy, 7-seed Trevecca 4
The Hounds entered with vengeance in mind as they faced the Trojans who were responsible for sending them to the loser's bracket in the first place. The G-MAC champs, however, struck first off Nowak, plating a pair in the first.
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That score did not hold long as a
Drew Donaldson knock up the middle plated the first run of the game. Donaldson and
Easton Good eventually scored on a error leaving it 3-2 after three.
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Trevecca tied it up in the fifth, but it was
Caleb Vaughn in the seventh to give the Hounds the lead, hammering a ball towards the ARC for his seventh of the season.
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That bomb ended up being the dagger in the contest as the Hounds slapped up a six spot in the eighth to put the game to sleep.
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E.J. White picked up the win, his fifth of the season, going two innings out the pen in relief of Nowak, punching out two batters in the process.
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GAME 2 | 2-seed UIndy 19, 3-seed Maryville 9
Having won two in a row, the Hounds dominated early against the rested Maryville Saints. It all started with Zack William's two-RBI double which scored both Donaldson and Good. From there it kept rolling as
Dakota Sill,
Nick Lukac and
Will Spear picked up RBIs, punting the Saints starter out of the game after just one out.
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That 6-0 lead never left the Hounds' hands, even with the Saints bringing it within one in the fourth. The Hounds tossed up another crooked number in the sixth and then pun the final nail in the coffin in the eighth when Good sent one off the arc for his first grand slam as a Greyhound.
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RECORD BREAKERS
With his four runs scored on the day,
Drew Donaldson has officially become the career leader in runs scored while in a Greyhound uniform. In the sixth inning, on a
Cole Hampton sacrifice fly, Donaldson sprinted home, earning the honor. He now holds the runs scored title for both a career and a single season.
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Alongside runs, Donaldson is now tied for the career hits record which was set by Macy Holdsworth from the 2016-19 seasons.
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UP NEXT
The Hounds and Saints will now face off in a single winner-take-all contest tomorrow at 11 a.m. at Greyhound Park. The winner of the nine-inning affair will load the buses to Saginaw Valley in Michigan for the super-regional.
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