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No. 9 Salisbury returned home on Sunday afternoon,
defeating the visiting Oswego State Lakers, 6-1, behind strong pitching and a pair of home runs. |
No. 5 Heidelberg wrapped up the Crossroads Crossover with a Sunday split. Heiselberg dropped the opener to Franklin, 11-5, then blanked Manchester, 3-0. Franklin's Mitch Merica (2-0) picked up the win, throwing five innings and giving up seven hits. Their offense was led by Ryan Bixler, who hit two home runs and had four RBI and three runs scored. Tristan Phillips (1-0), whose previous career high in strikeouts was four, fanned 10 Spartans in seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits for Heidelberg's first win of the season.
Case Western Reserve junior catcher Jake Ryan slugged a pair of solo home runs and sophomore Nick Denove struck out a career-high nine batters in a complete-game effort, as the Spartans topped the 10th-ranked Wooster 3-1 at Art Murray Field in Wooster, Ohio. Denove went the distance to earn his first win of the season, and did not allow his first earned run of the campaign until two outs in the ninth inning. He held the Wooster lineup to just five hits, and failed to walk a batter in the contest. The nine strikeouts surpassed his previous career-best of seven. Denove, an all-region selection last season, has now allowed just one earned run through 16 innings of work this season for an ERA of 0.56, while accumulating 16 strikeouts and surrendering just 11 hits and a walk.
Continuing its hot start to the season, North Central College was clicking on all cylinders, opening its annual Spring Break trip to the Snowbird Baseball Classic with a 10-0 shutout of Otterbein at North Charlotte Regional Park. Enjoying the first bit of warm weather this season, the Cardinal bats caught fire. On the afternoon, Eric Outlaw paced the offense with five runs batted in while going 2-for-4 from the plate. Justin Rios and Jared Wojcik also both finished 2-for-4 from the dish with two runs scored apiece, while Rob Marinec added a 2-for-5 performance with a run and RBI.
Kean made it four in a row with a 9-2 victory over Susquehanna. The win closes out the nine game home stand to start the season. Kean will enjoy a short break in game action before resuming play in sunny Florida on Friday. Junior Collin Keiernan (1-1) earned his first win of the season after tossing seven solid innings allowing just two runs and five hits while fanning six.
A pair of crucial late-inning plays helped No. 17 Randolph-Macon grab a series sweep of The College of New Jersey, as the Yellow Jackets used good baserunning to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth before patience at the plate earned R-MC the game-winning run in the 12th inning. A TCNJ win was in the cards as the Lions scored one in the 12th but could not close out the game, giving up a two spot to the Yellow Jackets.
No. 3-ranked Birmingham-Southern defeated Southern Athletic Association rival Rhodes 8-3 in the series finale. The win broke BSC's three-game losing skid and gave the Panthers their first conference win of the season. Junior righty Tristan Harvin got the start on the bump for the Panthers and pitched five and two-thirds innings, allowing two runs while striking out four and walking two batters. Harvin earned the win and improved his record to 2-1 this season. Freshman Hansen McCown came in in relief and pitched the final three and a third innings, allowing a run off three hits and striking out five Lynx batters. He was awarded the save, his first of the year.
No. 25 Washington & Jefferson opened its season with a doubleheader split against Mount Union. Both teams picked up 10-1 victories with Mount Union winning the first contest and W&J emerging victorious in the second. In the opener, sophomore Thomas Gallant made his first collegiate start and allowed a run on three hits striking out nine over five innings to pick up the win. The Purple Raiders belted out 13 hits and were led by senior Shawn Baker who was 4-for-4. Senior Jansen Eichenlaub took the mound for the Presidents in game two turned in a strong first impression for the split.
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| Ninth-ranked Denison closed out the weekend with a doubleheader split at Transylvania on Sunday afternoon. DU won the opener 11-10, before dropping a 6-5 decision in the nightcap. Denison athletics photo by Levi Rex |
No. 4-ranked Washington University exploded for 24 runs and 33 hits in a doubleheader sweep of Illinois Tech at Kelly Field in St. Louis. WashU improved to 6-0 with the victory, while IIT dropped to 0-3. The Bears won the three-game series outscoring IIT 37-4. WashU is off to a 6-0 start for the first time since 2006. Sean Robinson (.667), Colin Kahal (.615) and Johnny Lamantia (.526) rank 1-2-3 in the UAA in hitting. WashU has outscored its opponents 63-11 in the first six games
Junior Nicklaus Brown struck out nine batters as Marietta upset No. 7 ranked Cortland by the score of 10-1 on the campus of Johns Hopkins. Marietta is off to a perfect 3-0 start, while Red Dragons are 4-5 on the season. "Nick Brown was exceptional today and the offense got it going a little. It was fun to watch," Marietta head coach Brian Brewer said. "It was a great weekend as a whole. We pitched well all weekend, the offense got better as we went and, although the defense wasn't good, we executed in some key situations." Cortland managed just one run off of Brown on a solo home run from Wyatt Myers in the bottom of the second inning. Brown (1-0) worked eight innings and allowed just four base hits. He walked one and had the nine strikeouts.
No. 6 Babson broke a 4-4 deadlock by scoring five times with two outs in the top of the ninth inning and went on to defeat No. 2 Trinity (Texas), 9-5, in the finale of a three-game series at the Trinity Baseball Complex. With its second consecutive win, Babson (2-1) took two-out-of-three from Trinity (8-2), which had started the season with eight consecutive victories. Sophomore Thomas Lapham had three hits, senior Sean Harrington homered as part of a two-hit day, and classmate Aidan Scott went 2-for-4 with a double and two RBI to lead the Beavers. Fellow senior Alex DiMartino also had two hits, while junior Jack Ward drove in a pair of runs in the win.
No. 19 St. John Fisher earned two more wins as the Cardinals swept Saint Joseph's (Maine) at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex as part of the RussMatt Central Florida Invitational. With the wins, Fisher improved to 5-0 on the year while the Monks slipped to 1-3 overall.
One week after registering a split with Rutgers-Camden in a home doubleheader, Immaculata took to the road for a Sunday doubleheader opposite nationally-ranked Shenandoah. Immaculata battled in both contests dropping the first game 14-13 in extra innings before capturing game two by a final of 9-1. The Hornets earned skipper Kevin Anderson his 650th collegiate victory with the extra inning win in the opener. Sophomore Frankie Ritter had the game-winning hit for the hosts with a successful one-out suicide squeeze to plate Justin Porter from third base.