FORT MYERS, Fla. – Facing two teams picked to win their respective conferences, the Edgewood College baseball team played well but dropped a pair of one-run games on their season opening day. The Eagles nearly rallied from behind in a 4-3 loss to Augustana College (Ill.) in Sunday morning's season opener. Following that game, the Eagles forced extra innings against Keystone College, but fell 4-3 on a two-out game-winning double for the Giants in the 10th inning.
The Vikings scored a run in the top of the first off Edgewood College (0-2) opening day starter Andy Swanson, but the Eagles responded immediately. Andrew Lauritzen led off the game with the first of his three doubles, and later scored from third when Viking catcher John Swiderski let loose an errant throw trying to catch Zack Creekmore following a dropped third strike. The Eagles took their first lead of the game in the second inning when Lauritzen's two-out double scored Brodie Engel all the way from first base after Engel's bunt single.
Augustana College (11-3) scored an unearned run without a hit in the fourth and then took the lead on Alex Fluehr's RBI double in the fifth. The Vikings tacked on a vital insurance run in the seventh on an RBI single by Brandon Jasper.
Lauritzen again led off the eighth inning with a double and moved over to third on Danny Appino's groundout. Creekmore then drove Lauritzen home with a grounder to the right side of the infield, to pull the Eagles close at 4-3. However, the Eagles went down in order in the bottom of the ninth.
Lauritzen went 3-for-4 with three doubles to provide a majority of the Eagles' offensive attack. Brad Clark and Engel had the Edgewood College's other two hits. The Eagles went down on strikes 16 times to Augustana's Seth Davis who improved to 4-0 on the season. Swanson pitched seven strong innings, allowing three earned runs while striking out two batters. Alex Meister got the Eagles into the ninth, and AJ Verhage escape the ninth inning without facing a batter when catcher Pete Hefty through a base stealer.
The day's second game against Keystone College was another back and forth affair. Lauritzen led off the game this time with a triple and scored on freshman Garrett Bogucki's first collegiate hit. Keystone (3-1) tied the game on a two-run home run by Chris Bzozowski in the second, but Creekmore singled and scored on an error in the top of the third inning to tie the game at 2-2.
The Eagles trailed 3-2 in the seventh, until Pat Manning laced a single to right field and moved over on Engel's sacrifice bunt. Laurtizen moved him along to third with a ground ball, where Danny Appino scored him with a sacrifice fly to left field, tying the game at 3-3.
The game moved onto the 10th inning, where Lauritzen and Creekmore occupied second and third with one out, but the Eagles failed to push a run across. The near miss in the top of the 10th struck home in the bottom of the 10th when Eduardo Familia doubled to center field scoring Kevin Luciano with the winning run.
Edgewood College totaled 10 hits in the game, led by Bogucki and Creekmore. Bogucki went 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Creekmore was 2-for-5 with a stolen base. Nate Averill earned the start and struck six batters without a walk in 7.1 innings. Averill allowed seven hits and three earned runs. Verhage finished off the eighth inning, before yielding to Steve Gavin who took the loss in his Eagle debut.
Edgewood College is back in action Monday morning with a doubleheader against UW-Stout. The Eagles have 10 games scheduled on their spring break trip.
