NEW ALBANY, Ind. – The IU Southeast baseball team let a 4-2 lead slip away in the top of 9th as the Grenadiers fell 5-4 to Rio Grande, to open conference play on Friday.

Rio Grande (13-7, 1-0 RSC) opened the scoring in the second inning when Kent Reeser tripled to right to score Michael Rodriguez who had singled.

The Grenadiers (9-6, 0-1 RSC) tied the game in fourth when Jordan Branz singled to right to bring in Santrel Farmer.

IU Southeast took the lead in the fifth with a three-run inning added by three Rio Grande errors. Tyler Warmath scored from third after a wild throw by Brandon Pritchard as he was trying to get a force out at second. Then a missed catch on a throw from Prichard to first baseman Eli Daniels. A dropped pop up by Prichard sent Cody Maloon in from third.

The Grenadiers had chances to extend the lead but they could not convert and left 12 men on base in the contest.

A David Rodriguez RBI double cut the lead to 4-2 in the eighth.

A two-out rally gave the RedStorm the lead in the ninth. Rio Grande started the inning with a groundout and then back-to-back singles. Zach Harvey struck out swining and both runners advanced to second and third on stolen bases. Then an RBI single by Dylan Shockley tied the game and a RBI double by David Rodriguez gave the RedStorm the lead.

In the bottom of the inning, Cody Maloon led off with a single and Dalton Drexler came in to pinch run. After Brody Tanksley fouled out to left and Daunte Decello popped out, Drexler advanced to second on a stolen base but would not get further as Dalton Mitchell struck out swinging.

Kyle Hawkins took the loss as he suffered his first blown save of the year. Daniel Brescia and Maloon each had two hits in the loss.

The Grenadiers conclude the series tomorrow at 1 p.m. with a doubleheader.