WESTFIELD, IND. – Bolstered by strong starting pitching, Manchester University moved over the .500 mark with a pair of wins over North Coast Athletic Conference opponent DePauw University Saturday, March 5.

Sophomore right handers Taylor Kopplin (Westport, Ind.) and Brandon Eck (Fort Wayne, Ind.) proved crafty against the Tigers' line-up throughout the afternoon. Kopplin, improving to 2-0 on the young season, lowered his earned run average to 1.84, striking out five and being touched for only six hits and one run in eight innings of work. Eck was just as sparkling in game two, striking out three and allowing just two runs on four hits in seven and a third frames.

Meanwhile, on the offensive side of the Grand Park diamond, the Black and Gold bats came alive at key moments in both ends. In the opener, senior catcher Elliott Ford (Rome City, Ind.) laced a two-run, two-out single in the fourth, while junior first baseman Tailur Szarenski (Bluffton, Ind.) got around on the ball in the fifth, leading to two runs being plated after a visitors' error. During the nightcap, junior designated hitter Chad Schultz (Fair Oaks, Ind.) sent a single up the middle, scoring two runs in the first, overturning an early 1-0 DePauw lead, and Szarenski answered the call again, ripping a single deep in the hole at short with one out in the home half of the eighth that plated the eventual winning tally, breaking up a 2-2 tie.

MU (3-2) resumes the weekend set against DePauw (1-4) Sunday, March 6, with a single nine-inning contest at 12 p.m.

NOTES: Junior pitcher Clayton Adamson (Rochester, Ind.) made a strong impact in his first mound opportunity. He came out of the bullpen in game two, allowing just one runner to get on base and retiring five straight hitters to earn his first win … Senior infielder Sean Knepper (Bremen, Ind.) kept his hit streak intact, moving it to 11 straight contests dating back to the end of 2015 by gathering a safety in game one and two of them in game two.