RIO GRANDE, Ohio — IU Southeast exploded offensively and used a dominant all-around performance to take down Rio Grande 12–1 on Saturday. The Grenadiers struck early and never looked back, piling up five home runs and multiple extra-base hits in a statement win.

Alex Schuler opened the scoring in the 2nd inning with a triple to center, driving in Nick Johnson for a 1–0 lead. From there, the Grenadier offense caught fire. In the 3rd, IU Southeast launched three home runs in the inning alone—first a two-run shot by Gabe Yonto. Coulter Hamilton then homered to right field, followed by another solo homer by Nick Johnson to push the score to 5–0.

The momentum carried into the 4th. Yonto continued his big day with an RBI single to score Kannon Stull, and Kevin Moore added a sacrifice bunt RBI to score Caden Lockwood and to grow the lead to 7–0. A wild pitch later in the inning allowed Gabe Yonto to score, making it 8–0.

Kannon Stull kept the pressure on in the 5th with an RBI double that scored Kasen Parks. Stull was then followed by Caden Lockwood with a two-run homer down the left-field line, stretching the advantage to 11–0.

Matt Santana added an RBI single in the 6th to bring home the 12th Grenadier run of the afternoon.

Rio Grande broke up the shutout in the 7th inning with a solo home run by Joel Pagan, but that would be the only run IU Southeast pitching allowed in an otherwise dominant performance by pitchers Brendan Whalen and Eli Laurent. Starter Brendan Whalen threw five innings of one-hit baseball. He retired the final 14 batters he faced. He did not walk a batter and struck out seven. 

Gabe Yonto was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBI. Kannen Stull was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and a RBI and Coulter Hamilton finished 2-for-5 with two runs scored and a RBI.

The Grenadiers will play again on Tuesday, March 10, at Georgetown College (Ky.) at 5:00 PM ET