The University of Illinois Springfield baseball hit nine home runs on Saturday in its doubleheader at Indianapolis, and it split a doubleheader against the Greyhounds.
 
In the opener, UIS faced one of the top performer pitchers in NCAA Division II in Indianapolis' Xavier Rivas. The Prairie Stars hit five home runs off Rivas, and had a 7-5 lead heading into the bottom of the seventh inning.
 
Indianapolis fought back though and tied the game, forcing extra innings. Nick Mayerhofer led off the eighth with a home run putting UIS up. Once again, the Greyhounds came back and had a walkoff 9-8 victory.
 
Zion Pettigrew and Brant Vanaman both hit two home runs, and Asher Bradd hit one. Pettigrew finished with a team-high three RBI, and he, Brandon Bannon, and Vanaman each scored twice. Cameron Zunkel was the best pitcher in the game, throwing 3 2/3 innings in relief and allowing just one run and three hits, and he struck out four.
 
In game two, UIS hit three more home runs. After most of game one's homers were solo shots, the Prairie Stars scored nine runs off their homers in game two, and they won 11-1.
 
Quinn Gudaitis threw six innings for the Prairie Stars and allowed just six hits and no earned runs. He struck out nine of the 27 batters he faced. Cmaeron Leff threw a scoreless seventh inning.
 
Offensively, Vanaman hit a two-run early, Austin Alderman had a three-run shot in the middle innings, and Pettigrew capped the scoring with a grand slam in the last inning. Bradd had one run and one RBI, and Kal Youngquist and Bobby Barnard also had doubles.
 
UIS is now 35-7 overall and 15-4 in the GLVC. The Prairie Stars and Greyhounds end their four-game series on Sunday afternoon.