Baseball

Six Baseball Squads Secure Opening Day Victories

Friday’s Baseball Results
Ball State 4, St. John’s 3
Northern Illinois 10, North Carolina A&T 2
Central Michigan 18, West Georgia 6
Toledo 8, Memphis 6
Miami 11, Southern 1
Kent State 8, Southeastern Louisiana 3
Pitt 12, Western Michigan 4
Presbyterian 8, Akron 6
Little Rock 6, Eastern Michigan 1
Murray State 13, Ohio 4
No. 5 Georgia Tech 11, Bowling Green 5
Presbyterian 8, Akron 6
Stories Courtesy of MAC Athletic Communications Departments 

Ball State 4, St. John’s 3
Box Score
DeLAND, Fla. – The Ball State baseball team rode a late three-run rally and strong performance out of the bullpen from John Chambers to a 4-3 win against St. John's on Saturday afternoon at Melching Field.

Trailing 3-1 entering the bottom of the seventh inning, Brett Griffiths led off with a double before Preston Murphy reached on a fielder's choice that also advanced Griffiths to third base. John Colligan next reached on an RBI fielder's choice that scored Griffiths, and Murphy was thrown out at second.

Gavin Balius followed with a single to left field that moved Colligan to third, and Colligan scored on a throwing error as Balius stole second base to tie the game at 3-3. Pinch hitter Tommy Landsnes walked to set up an RBI single to left by Ryan Muizelaar which proved to be the game-winning hit.

Chambers (1-0) struck out five in 5.0 shutout relief innings while only walking one to earn the win. The senior righthander has now worked 11 straight scoreless frames counting the end of last season which included a 5.2-inning shutout appearance out of the bullpen against Eastern Michigan in the Mid-American Conference Tournament.

Keegan Johnson started for the Cardinals and worked 4.0 innings of three-run ball in the season opener. Tommy Conley took the loss for St. John's after giving up three runs in 1.1 frames.

The Red Storm got out to a 2-0 lead on a two-run home run in the third inning, but Kenskey Thomas drove in Balius on a single in the bottom half of the frame to put the Cardinals on the board. St. John's scored on a sacrifice fly in the fourth but was held scoreless for the rest of the contest.

Northern Illinois 10, North Carolina A&T 2
Box Score
GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Northern Illinois University baseball team won on opening day for the first time in over 10 years on Friday, defeating the North Carolina A&T Aggies 10-2 at World War Memorial Stadium.
 
The Huskies' last win in the season opener came on Feb. 13, 2015 in a 10-6 victory over South Dakota State. NIU had seven hits and drew seven walks in the game Friday. Ivan Dahlberg (Minooka, Ill./Illinois-Springfield) and Vinny Spotofora (Shorewood, Ill./Lake Land College) both had two hits in their first games as Huskies. Charlie Parcell (Des Plaines, Ill./Maine West) and Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) both had a game-high three RBI from the top of the lineup.
 
"We did a good job of taking what they gave us," said head coach Ryan Copeland after the victory. "You never really know how you're going to come out the first time playing outside. I'd like for us to get on the barrel a bit more and collect some more hits, but we did a good job of getting on base and anytime you can score 10 runs on a Friday in college baseball you'll take that."
 
Parcell manufactured NIU's first run of the game in the top of the first. He drew a walk to leadoff the game, then stole second and third base. After back-to-back strikeouts, Parcell scored on a passed ball to put the Huskies up 1-0.
 
Dahlberg led off the second with a double, NIU's first hit of the game. Austin Wiegand (Eureka, Ill./John A. Logan College) also got on base in his first plate appearance as a Huskie, drawing a walk with one out. Spotofora drove in Dahlberg from second with a single through the right side, putting NIU up 2-0. After NC A&T starting pitcher Diego Barrett hit Nolan Sandee (Glendale, Wis./Nicolet) to load the bases. Parcell drove in Wiegand from third with a sacrifice fly to give the Huskies a 3-0 lead.
 
NIU (1-0) broke the game open in the fourth. The first three batters all reached base, starting with a Wiegand base hit followed by walks to Spotofora and Sandee. Parcell was then hit by a Ross Fowler pitch to bring home Wiegand and make the score 4-0. Cole Smith (Dubuque, Iowa/Bradley) cleared the bases with a triple to give NIU a 7-0 lead. Gavin Baldwin (Nashville, Ill./SEMO) drove in Smith on a groundout for the fifth run of the inning and an 8-0 advantage.
 
"Cole's a really good baseball player and he had good at-bats today," Copeland said of the NIU second baseman. "He had one hit and it was a big one. We always want our guys to sense that ability to throw that knockout punch. The domino effect of clearing the bases there, get out to a big lead and be able to settle into the game while also making NC A&T go to the bullpen earlier than they wanted could hopefully set us up for success on Saturday and Monday."
 
Carter Cox (St. Peter's, Mo./Fort Zumwalt South) retired nine of the first 10 NC A&T batters he faced on Friday with seven strikeouts. The Aggies got their first hit of the game in the top of the fourth on a one-out single from Bruce Wyche. With two on and two out, Boaz Harper drove in JT Taylor from second base with a single to make the score 8-1. NIU got the run back in the top of the fifth as a two-out Parcell RBI single put the Huskies ahead 9-1.
 
NIU pitchers struck out 14 batters on Friday. Cox had a career-high 10 in five innings, allowing one run on four hits. Gavin Micklinghoff (McHenry, Ill./McHenry County College) had three punchouts in two perfect innings of relief. Ben Kasten (Hales Corners, Wis./Madison College) had a strikeout in a 1-2-3 ninth inning.

Central Michigan 18, West Georgia 6
Box Score
CARROLLTON, Ga. –Harrison Bowman homered twice, Drew Loikits finished with four hits including two doubles, and two relievers threw five-plus shutout innings on Friday as the Central Michigan baseball team downed West Georgia, 18-6, in the nightcap to earn a split of a season-opening doubleheader at the Wolves' Cole Field.

"The bounce-back was huge," said CMU coach Jake Sabol, whose team dropped the opener, 11-3. "Obviously, ending the day with a W on a high note after doing some really good things certainly beats winning the first and dropping the second. I'm just proud of the way these guys competed today.

"I'm happy overall with the day. Do we want to be 2-0? Yes, of course. But I like where we ended heading into (Saturday)."

The Chippewas and Wolves close their four-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday (1 p.m.).

Bowman, a junior transfer from Troy, hit his first home run to highlight the Chippewas' four-run first inning, sparking the Chippewas in the nightcap.

Cashing in early in game two was critical for the Chippewas, who stranded 13 baserunners in the opener.

"That was kind of a point of emphasis there at the end of game one, we had pitches to hit if we were just a little bit more aggressive," Sabol said. "And I think that was kind of the mentality changing from game one to game two. 'Hey, let's be ready. We're going to get pitches to hit. If we can be on time and find the barrel, good things are going to happen.'

"And, you know, we did that right away in inning number one (of game two)."

The Chippewas broke a 4-4 tie with a five-run fourth inning and then poured it on, scoring 14 runs from the fourth-eighth innings.

Gavin Moczydlowsky relieved starter Jared Hanson in the fourth and tossed 3 1/3 scoreless innings while the Chippewa bats delivered at the plate. Freshman Cameron Neihaus, pitching in his first collegiate game, was perfect over the final two frames.

Moczydlowsky, a junior transfer from Michigan State, picked up the victory after allowing one hit and striking out four.

"I think we all kind of were a little unsure of what we'd get out of him, but he has only gotten better since he's been here," Sabol said. "His confidence is growing and his stuff just keeps improving. I think he just found a good place to call home. He seems comfortable.

"We're pumped to have him. I think he's going to have a huge role for us. Tonight was just kind of the first chapter of that."

The Chippewas collected 15 hits, six of them for extra bases. Their 18 runs marked their most against an NCAA Division I opponent since May 6, 2023, when they scored 24 against Eastern Michigan.

West Georgia scored four runs in the second inning of the opener and never trailed, though the Chippewas managed to draw to 4-3 when they scored all three of their runs in the third.

Spencer Verburg had two hits, Bowman doubled, and Cayden Smith tripled to lead CMU at the plate.

CMU starter Hayden Bailey went 2 1/3 innings in taking the loss.

"I thought we did a lot of really good things (in game one)," Sabol said. "If you look at the scoreboard, it may not look like it.

"We just didn't capitalize on some opportunities that presented themselves. We played clean defense and we had traffic on the bases for like seven of the nine innings. We kept putting pressure on and I thought it was a well-played game offensively for us. We just needed to get a knock or two."
Toledo 8, Memphis 6
Box Score
MEMPHIS, Tenn. – Behind a big fourth inning and strong starting pitching, the Toledo baseball team held off Memphis for an 8-6 victory at FedEx Park on college baseball's opening day on Friday.

The Rockets (1-0) scored six times in the fourth to take the lead and break the game open, leading 6-1 after four frames. UT scored two more times in the sixth to extend the lead, and held back a late Memphis rally, despite giving up two runs each in the eighth and ninth innings. Rocket starter Brady Sassee delivered a top-quality season debut, allowing just one run on two hits in 6.0 innings.

Toledo won its season opener for the second time in the last three seasons, having defeated Mercer, 7-6 in 10 innings to open the 2024 season. The Rockets will look to claim the series tomorrow, with first pitch moving up to noon ET/11:00 a.m. 

Miami 11, Southern 1
Box Score
BATON ROUGE, La.– Miami opened up its season with a win Friday afternoon, defeating the Southern University Jaguars 11-1 on the road in eight innings. Evan Appelwick and Ignacio Gonzalez each homered during the contest. Miami improves to 1-0 with the win while Southern falls to 0-1.

HOW IT HAPPENED
  • Carson Raether led off the top of the first for the RedHawks with a walk and Mason Breidenbach reached first on a fielder's choice. Appelwick hit his first long ball of the year, putting the RedHawks ahead 2-0 early. Starting pitcher Carson Byers held the Jaguars scoreless with one hit to round out the first inning.
  • The RedHawks added one to their tally in the second. Jamie Rasmussen earned his first hit as a RedHawk and Marcus Dierks bunt singled to advance Rasmussen to second. Raether walked again to load the bases and Breidenbach reached on an error to score Dierks.
  • Byers saw three up and three down in the bottom of the second.
  • Gonzalez hit his first homer of the year in the top of the third, extending the lead to 4-0. Tommy Harrison reached first via walk and promptly advanced on a wild pitch, setting up Dierks to drive him home with a single. Two walks loaded the bases and Appelwick walked to score Dierks and make it 6-0.
  • Harrison singled in the top of the sixth to make it 7-0, scoring Dominic Krupinski, who had also singled.
  • Southern scored their first run in the bottom of the sixth to pull within six runs.
  • Dierks led off the seventh with a single and stole second. He scored on a single by Hayden Christiansen, who advanced twice with a walk by Appelwick and an HBP by Ryan Novak. Krupinski reached first on an error to score Christiansen and make it a 9-1 game.
  • The Jaguars put runners at the corners in the bottom of the seventh but Miami threw a runner out at home plate to end the inning.
  • The RedHawks pulled ahead 11-1 in the top of the eighth. Rasmussen reached on an error and Dierks walked. Each stole a bag and Christiansen singled to score the runs.
  • Miami fended off Southern in the bottom of the eighth, enforcing the run rule and ending the game victorious.
Kent State 8, Southeastern Louisiana 3
Box Score
HAMMOND, La. – The Kent State baseball team kicked off the 2026 season in winning fashion Friday night, defeating Southeastern Louisiana 8-3 at Pat Kenelly Diamond at Alumni Field.

The Flashes (1-0) got off to a fast start, plating four runs in the second inning to take control early. Ripken Reese launched a solo home run to right field, his first of the season, before Micah Rienstra-Kiracofe capped the inning with a three-run blast to left field, scoring Alejandro Covas and Kolton Schaller.

Kent State added another run in the third when Sawyer Solitaria homered to deep right field. The Flashes extended their lead to 6-0 in the fifth inning when Rienstra-Kiracofe scored on a wild pitch after reaching base via a walk.

Southeastern Louisiana (0-1) finally broke through in the seventh inning, scoring three runs to cut the deficit to 6-3. Dane Watts delivered a two-run single to center field, and Brody Capps followed with an RBI single through the right side. The Lions nearly tied the game in the bottom of the eighth, but Alejandro Covas caught the final out at the wall, stealing a potential game-tying three-run home run.

Kent State answered in the ninth inning with two insurance runs. Solitaria connected on his second home run of the game, a two-run shot to left center that also scored Rienstra-Kiracofe.

Ciaran Caughey earned the win on the mound for the Flashes, pitching five scoreless innings while allowing just three hits and striking out eight batters. Brady St. Pierre took the loss for the Lions, surrendering five earned runs in four innings of work.

Solitaria led the offensive attack, going 3-for-5 with two home runs and three RBIs. Rienstra-Kiracofe also had a strong performance, scoring three runs while going 1-for-2 with a home run, three RBIs, and two walks.