VERONA, Wis. – It came 18 days later than scheduled, but the Edgewood College baseball team finally completed their home opener, and did so in style. The Eagles swept past Maranatha Baptist 10-1 and 8-3 in their first full games at Stampfl Field this season. Starting pitchers Cody Pfeifer and Tony Ales earned the victories, surrendering just one earned run on the night.
Edgewood College (7-15, 5-3 NAC) blasted from the gate with five hits and a walk from their first six batters of game one. Alex Jaskulski and Ryan O'Dell had RBI singles while Jake Zadra had the first of his two doubles on the night for another run batted in.
The Eagles led 3-0 after the first innings and extended their lead to 7-0 with four more runs in the third inning. Andrew Lauritzen provided the big shot in the fourth inning with a two-run single to right field. Lauritzen would go 3-for-4 in the opening game. Kody Parman had an RBI single and Jaskulski knocked home his second run of the game with a double.
Maranatha Baptist (2-13, 0-10 NAC) touched Pfeifer for a run in the fourth, but the Eagles answered right back on an RBI groundout by Sean Thompson that scored O'Dell who reached on a ringing double down the left field line. The Eagles added two more runs on two Crusader errors on the same pickoff play allowed Parman to score all the way from first in the fifth inning, and a Pat Manning RBI single in the seventh.
Pfeifer went 5.1 innings, allowing one earned run on seven hits, while striking out four batters to notch his first career victory.Taylor Hillmann, Dan Hoppel and Brock McGinn combined to finish the game. Lauritzen's three hits lead the team, but Zadra, Jaskulski, O'Dell and Thompson each had two hits apiece. Zadra's came on a pair of doubles.
In the second game, it was Maranatha Baptist who got the jump on the Eagles. A leadoff error in the top of the second opened the door for the Crusaders to score three unearned runs off Ales. The Crusaders Timothy Rogers had the big hit with a two-run single. Edgewood College got one back in the bottom of the second on a Zack Creekmore RBI single, but didn't regain the lead until the fourth inning.
In the fourth, Creekmore drove in March Ostrowski with a sacrifice fly and Pat Manning tied the game at 3-3 with a perfectly placed RBI bunt single. Two batters later, Eric Curtis delivered a single to center field to score both Lauritzen and Manning and put the Eagles ahead for good at 5-3. Brad Clark made it 6-3 with an RBI groundout in the fifth inning.
Curtis put the final touches on the night with his first career home run in the bottom of the eighth inning, a line shot over the left field wall at Stampfl Field. Curtis finished matching a career-high with four runs batted in. Manning, Ostrowski and Lauritzen, in addition to Curtis, each had two hits.
Ales struck out seven batters in five innings of work to improve to 2-2 on the season. Four Eagle pitchers shutout the Crusaders the rest of the way for the Eagles' fifth NAC win of the season.
Edgewood College will return to action tomorrow at Stampfl Field when they make-up Monday's postponed doubleheader with Wisconsin Lutheran College. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m. and the games can be seen on EdgewoodCollegeEagles.com.