HAMMOND, Ind. – The UIndy baseball team swept Tuesday's doubleheader against Purdue Northwest, with a wild back-and-forth game one, followed by an offensive onslaught win over the Pride in game two.
The Hounds continued their stellar offense with Austin Bode and Cole Hampton both extended their hitting and on base streaks in today's game. With Bode's hitting streak now at 12 and on base streak at 22, while Hampton's hitting streak is at nine and his on base streak at 21. Tré Hondras also extended his on base streak today to 19, after his 27th walk of the season, which ranks second on the team.
The Tuesday doubleheader saw two Greyhounds making their first and second career starts today; Grant Kelly, making his second career start, his first being against Purdue Northwest earlier this season, and the freshman right-hander Dylan Kaminski, who has made seven relief starts for the Hounds this season.
Today's two doubleheader wins marks the first time the Hounds have swept the Pride in their season series since 2023, and the third time since 2019.
GAME 1 | UIndy 9, Purdue Northwest 7
The Hounds played their second extra inning game in the last three games, which brings the team's total to four extra inning games this season.
The Hounds were not short of offensive production today, as they had seven players record a hit and 10 batters reach base. Brayton Bowen and Austin Bode both hit solo home runs for the Hounds today, Bowen a three-run home run in the second inning, and Bode a solo shot in the seventh. Bowen hit his second career home run today, while Bode hit his eighth home run of the year.
Tré Hondras' sacrifice fly in the third and Luke Smock's sprint to home on a passed ball in the seventh inning had the Hounds out in front in the top of the seventh. But the Pride weren't done yet, with two outs in the bottom of the seventh the Pride's AJ Reid hit a two run RBI single to square the game at six, and send it to extra innings.
With Cole Hampton on first, and Chase Mason on second in the top of the eighth, right handed pitcher Austin Bestul stepped up to the plate for his first career at bat, Bestul laid down a fielder's choice sac bunt which brought home Mason after an error from the third baseman to put UIndy ahead 7-6. Eli Burkhart drove home the final two runs for the Hounds on an RBI single to put them ahead 9-6.
Bestul remained in the game on the bump after his at bat in the top of the inning, to close things out after replacing Nic Besecker in the seventh inning. After Bestul gave up a lead off home run in the eighth, he took down the Pride's next three batters to wrap up a wild 9-7 road win for the Hounds.
GAME 2 | UIndy 19, Purdue Northwest 11
Game two was all offense, Purdue Northwest scored the game's first six runs before UIndy's bats took over and drove in the next 15 runs of the game. Hampton opened the game up in the third inning by hitting his team-leading 11th home run of the season, while Bode, Hondras, Nick Lukac and Luke Smock were all responsible for the team's next eight runs.
The Hounds had three home runs in this game including a solo home run from Easton Good and a two run home run from Eli Burkhart; his first of the season, to give the Hounds their 15th and 16th runs of the game. This is only the second time this season that UIndy has hit three home runs in one game, the other being against Lake Erie (2/15/25).
The 15 runs scored in the third, fourth and fifth innings are the most scored in a three inning span since the team scored 12 in the final three innings against Maryville (3/23/25).
Frankie Klemm picked up his second win of the season today after pitching 2.1 innings and recording three punch outs. Kaminski started this one for UIndy, going 1.2 innings, while Jacob Flaherty, Payton Plym and Ryan O'Born all came in for relief after Klemm's 2.1 innings pitched to complete the two season sweep of the Pride with a 19-11 victory.
UP NEXT
UIndy has another important road series this weekend against GLVC opponent William Jewell, with the first game of the series starting at 7 p.m. on Friday April 25.
