Opening weekend ends with redemption

More news about: East Texas Baptist | Methodist
LaGrange opened their season at the Centenary (La.) Classic with a 0-3 record. The panthers will travel back home to face Pfeiffer on Friday on the opening day of the LaGrange Classic.
LaGrange athletics photo

 

After being held at bay for seven innings, the bats of Methodist University exploded for nine runs in the eighth inning, propelling the Monarchs to their first victory, 9–5, of 2025 against the visiting Maroons of Roanoke College at Armstrong–Shelley Field on Sunday afternoon. Roanoke's pitching staff had Methodist number through the first seven innings, which included the Maroons' starter, Owen Wojciechowski. In six innings of work, Wojciechowski gave up zero earned runs on one base hit while striking out five Monarchs. During that time, Roanoke built up a 3-0 lead after recording a run in the first inning and two more in the fourth. Methodist's offense, which only had two hits to this point, finally started to click in the eighth as the Monarchs rattled off nine hits and scored nine runs. Following back-to-back hits by Caleb Greene and Blake Freeman, pinch hitter Israel Ortiz stepped up to the plate and delivered Methodist's first run of the contest with an RBI single up the middle. Three batters later, with the Monarchs now trailing 3–2, Brandon Mauger smacked a 2-RBI double to left center to give Methodist its first lead. Additional RBIs from Banks Hartman (1), Tristen Melvin (1), Freeman (1), and Ortiz (2) increased the Monarchs' advantage to 9-3. With their final at-bats in the ninth, Sam Scharville plated two more runs for the Maroons on his 2-RBI single.

Averett started off the season with three straight wins, for the first time since 2007, with a three-game sweep of Brevard College. Averett (3-0) took care of business during the Sunday matinee, dispatching Brevard (0-3) 10-5 behind a strong offensive outburst and tenacious pitching from the Cougars. The Cougars gave up a two spot in the first inning but by the end of the second, the Cougars led 4-1 and would never hand the lead back to Brevard.

Rhodes earned a 5-2 win over host Centenary (La.). The Rhodes offense, which played a huge role in the first two victories of the season, was held quiet at the start of the game, but the top of the 4th inning would see Cooper Kuriger deliver a 2 RBI single to give the Lynx the lead. A bases loaded walk from Brandon Trichell followed by a sacrifice fly from Quinn Blackman added 2 more runs to the board for the Lynx, extending their lead to 4-2 going into the bottom of the 5th. Ben Daniel got in on the action in the top of the 8th as he recorded an RBI double to drive home Quinn Blackman and add some insurance to the Lynx lead. Those 5 runs were all the Lynx needed as masterful performances by sophomore starter Andrew Carron and freshman reliever Reid Manti held the Gents to just 2 runs in the contest. Carron dealt 5.0 complete innings only allowing 1 run and giving up just 4 hits. Reid Manti came on in the bottom of the 6th and was lights out, dealing 4.0 innings of 1 run ball, only allowing 3 hits and striking out 1. This stellar combined pitching performance secured a win over the Gents by a score of 5-2. Centenary (La.) would split on the day edging Huntingdon College by a score of 2-1.

Texas-Dallas completed a three-game series sweep of Dallas with a 21-13 victory at UTD Baseball Field. The Comets (3-0) outscored the Crusaders (0-3) 51-20 in the series - the most runs over three games to start the season in program history. On Sunday, UTD recorded 14 hits and drew a school-record 17 walks while being hit by a pitch five times. The Comets also stole five bases and posted four doubles, a home run and a sacrifice fly. Senior starter Apollo Cassimatis (1-0) earned the victory for the Comets, allowing two earned runs, six hits and two walks and tying his career-high of five strikeouts over five innings. Crusader starter Aien Sharp faced eight batters and only recorded one out while giving up three hits, six runs and three walks to take the loss.

Scoring seven runs in two innings late in the game, no. 10 East Texas Baptist University earned their first win of the year, coming back for the victory over no. 8 Pomona-Pitzer College, 9-4. ETBU is now 1-2 and has four more games in California, with three against no. 18 La Verne. Dylan Burnaman had three hits in five at-bats with two RBI to lead ETBU. Hunter Rumachik posted two home runs for five RBI, while Connor Massimini had a home run, and Nathan Harmon recorded a RBI. William Howard and Nicolas Chavez both had two hits. Jackson Jones received the win in relief, pitching five innings, allowing no hits, no runs with five strikeouts. Nolan Bushko finished the game in the ninth, recording one strikeout and giving up one hit. Tyler Bogusz started the game and went three innings with two strikeouts, giving up four runs on six hits.