MONTGOMERY, Alabama - The Mount St. Joseph University baseball team headed south to open the 2024 season. The Mount traveled to Montgomery, Alabama to take on Sewanee, Huntingdon and Castleton over three days. They opened with a late afternoon matchup with Sewanee on Friday, in a back-and-forth contest the Lions led late but were unable to close the game out falling 7-6.
To open the 2024 season coach
Jeff Newman handed the ball to junior right-hander
Derek Richter. Richter struggled a bit in the first allowing three earned runs, but settled down quickly to keep the Tigers scoreless over the next three innings.
The Lions offense struggled to find its footing early, but eventually scored a pair in the fifth inning.
Matt Brankamp led off the inning with and infield single, and came around to score on a two-run homerun by
Jackson Gutzwiller.
In the bottom of the fifth Richter turned the game over to freshman
Nolan Miller, who was making his MSJ debut. Miller did not allow a hit in his two innings of work, but did issue a pair of base on balls. One of those came around to score in the fifth pushing the Sewanee lead back to two.
In the top of the sixth inning the Lions were able to take the lead, scoring three runs in the frame.
Andrew Clements led off with a walk and moved onto second on a passed ball.
Kevin Schaaf then followed with an infield single, moving Clements to third. Brankamp then lifted a sacrifice fly into left field, scoring Clements. The next two Lions, Gutzwiller and
Jake Sanders each reached via the free pass, and
Anton Mere laced an RBI single into rightfield. The final run of the frame came via a bases loaded walk by
Jake Lawson.
Evan Webb took the mound in the 7th inning and had a nearly perfect frame, allowing only a single hit.
The Lions added a run in the top of the 8th inning, as Mere led off with a walk and would eventually come around to score on a two-out RBI basehit by
Brennan Martin.
In the bottom of the 8th the ball was turned over to
Ryan Caulfield, who struggled with his command. In the end he would fail to record an out and be charged with three earned runs. The three runs gave the late lead back to Sewanee.
The Lions would threaten in the top of the 9th, but Schaaf was thrown out at third base trying to advance to end the game.
UP NEXT:
The Lions will take on the host school Huntingdon tomorrow!
