SAGINAW, Mich. – The UIndy baseball team are the NCAA Midwest Regional Champions once again! The Greyhound swept Saginaw Valley State in two-straight games, winning the second 11-10 to punch their ticket back to the NCAA Division II Championship in Cary. N.C.
 
The Hounds have now beat two No. 1-seeds in the Super Regional on the road, with this year's victory coming via a run differential of just two total runs.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED
Much like game one of the three-game set, the Hounds were all over the Cardinals early, jumping to a six-run lead after just two frames of action. The catalyst of the runs came off the bat of Zack Williams, who after an unlucky offensive day in game one, was dominant throughout nine innings of action. The senior first baseman tripled in his first at bat of the game, scoring the first run of the game for the Hounds.
 
 
An RBI by Cole Hampton in the first and then one by Luis Vergara in the second brought it to 3-0 in favor of the Hounds. The clutch hitting also brought Williams right back up with two runners on, where he once again delivered a big blow, plating two runs on a single.
 
However, in a case of severe déjà vu, the Cardinals rallied right back into it with their own big inning in the top of the third, leaving the Greyhound lead at just two.
 
That lead was brought to one higher by pure dominance on the basepath by Caleb Vaughn, as he stole not just second, but third and home to make it 7-5. Vaughn's speed did more than extend the lead, it made him the stolen base king for UIndy baseball. Already holding the single-season record – for now – Vaughn etched his name into the record books for most career stolen bases as a UIndy Greyhounds.
 
 
From that point, it was continued back and forth baseball as Logan Peterson took the mound for the Greyhounds in just his second relief appearance of the season. Peterson proceeded to shove for two frames, leaving the game with an out and two runners on in the top of the eighth.
 
That left the final six outs of the ballgame on the back of E.J. White. However, after seeing the sidearmer the day before, the Cardinals jumped on him, plating the tying run on a sac fly and a single to centerfield.
 
That set the stage for offensive heroics for the Hounds. With one out, Vaughn hit the clutchest home runs of his career to deep centerfield, giving the Hounds a 10-9 lead.
 
 
And for even more insurance for White, Nick Lukac just two batters later went oppo taco to make it 11-9 in favor of the Greyhounds. The pair of homers left it in the capable hands of White, who after some scary contact by the Cardinals, got the job done and was swarmed by his teammates on the mound as back-to-back Regional Champs.
 
HOUND BYTES
Head Coach Al Ready on the Hounds going back to Cary…
"It's really special, I couldn't be more proud of these guys they work really hard all year long. A lot of people counted us out at the beginning of the year, given what we lost on the mound and so forth. But with all the experience we brought back, the upperclassmen, the Caleb Vaughns, the Drew Donaldsons, the Zack Williams, I knew we were gonna be right back here in this position."
 
Ready on Vaughn's record…
"Man that is just our game. Yeah he hit a bomb today, but runs are hard to come by and sometime stolen bases are exactly what you need to win. He's had many of them over the year and nobody deserves that record more than Caleb Vaughn."
 
UP NEXT
The Hounds will await to see who they will face in their first game of the NCAA DII Championship in Cary. N.C. Stay tuned to @UIndybaseball on social media for updates.