The Valparaiso University baseball team fell 10-1 to Indiana State on Saturday afternoon in Terre Haute, Ind. to open the Missouri Valley Conference portion of the season.  

How It Happened

• Indiana State jumped on the board first thanks to a two-out hit in the opening inning.
• The Sycamores added to the lead when Seth Gergely hit a three-run homer in the second to build the lead to 4-0.
• Indiana State’s Mike Sears homered in the bottom of the third to make it 5-0.
• Gergely made it a two-homer game with his three-run blast in the fourth to extend the lead to 8-0 for the hosts.
• Indiana State added a run in the fifth and one more in the sixth on a Randal Diaz home run to up the lead to 10-0.
• Valpo’s Brady Renfro (Antigo, Wis. / Antigo) doubled to deep right center with one away in the top of the seventh, moved to third on a Jake Skrine (Longmont, Colo. / Mead [Indiana]) single and scored Valpo’s first run of the game on a ground ball by Ryan Maka (Oak Forest, Ill. / Oak Forest). That tally extended the game as the Sycamores were two outs away from invoking the 10-run rule.
• The Beacon pitching staff posted its first zero of the day in the seventh when Christian Hack (Oak Forest, Ill. / Tinley Park) induced an inning-ending 6-4-3 double play to send the game to the eighth.
• Hack followed up with another scoreless frame in the eighth to once again extend the contest.

Inside the Game

• Half of Valpo’s four hits went for extra bases as Alex Ryan (Lake Mills, Wis. / Lakeside Lutheran) and Renfro both doubled.
• Maka had the team’s lone RBI, his eighth of the season.
• Renfro extended his season-long on-base streak to 15, while Nolan Tucker (Cedar Lake, Ind. / Hanover Central) failed to reach base in a game for the first time this season, snapping his 14-game on-base streak.
• Renfro and Kade Reinertson (Huxley, Iowa / Ballard Community) reached base twice each.
• Hack yielded two runs on six hits while striking out four in his four innings of relief.  

Up Next

Valpo (7-8) and Indiana State will round out the series with a doubleheader on Sunday starting at noon CT / 1 p.m. ET. Both games will air on ESPN+.