Grenadiers Defeat Oakland City 11-6 To Open Conference Series

NEW ALBANY, Ind. – Brayden Hazelwood hit two home runs as IU Southeast opened up a 7-0 lead before defeating Oakland City 11-6 in the River States Conference series opener on Thursday.

The Grenadiers opened the scoring in the bottom of the first when Mason White tripled to right center to drive in Trevor Campbell, then White scored on a wild pitch.

Brayden Hazelwood tacked on another run with a mammoth solo home run to left in the second.

Mason White led off the bottom of the third with a single and moved to third on a single by Ben Berenda.

After a strikeout, Trevor Goodwin singled to center to drive in White with two outs. Brayden Hazelwood followed with his second home run of the day, a three-run home run, to extend the lead to 7-0.

But the Mighty Oaks got back in the game with a four-run fourth inning highlighted by a two-run triple by Xander Willis.

IU Southeast got some breathing room with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning when Kody Putnam singled to drive in Trevor Campbell and a RBI groundout by Blake Cook drove in the second run.

Oakland City cut the lead to 9-6 with two runs in the fifth inning, but Ben Berenda doubled to right-center to drive in White and another run-scoring single by Putnam drove in Campbell to make the Grenadier lead 11-6.

Mason White went 4-for-5 with four runs scored and a RBI. Brayden Hazelwood had two home runs and drove in four while Putnam and Berenda each had two hits.

Luke McLaughlin, Cade Rusch and Cade Reynolds combined to allow just two hits in the four innings of the game.

McLaughlin allowed a leadoff double and then a wild pitch but he recorded a ground out, lineout and strike out to strand the runner at third in the sixth inning.

IU Southeast concludes the series with Oakland City Sunday at 2 pm.