READING, Pa. – The Albright baseball team opened its 2018 season with a 5-2 victory over Marywood on Tuesday afternoon at chilly Kelchner Field. The victory is the team's fourth season-opening win since 2012.
The Lions wasted no time in bringing out their offense. After
Matt Fisher stranded two Marywood runners in the top of the first, the Lions loaded the bases on three straight walks to
Jeff Yordy,
Tanner Brescancine and
Noah Beebe. That brought
Logan Adams to the dish with the bases loaded and two outs. He ripped a double into the right-center field gap to clear the bases. That gave the Lions a 3-0 lead in their first at-bat of the year.
Marywood got a run back in the top of the third after a leadoff triple, but the Lions retook a three-run lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. The Lions took advantage of two errors and two walks to score a run when
Logan Pennypacker worked a free pass with the bases loaded and two outs.
Marywood (1-1) again got a run in the top of the fifth. Another triple followed a bunt single to trim the Albright lead to 4-2.
Albright (1-0) capped the scoring in the bottom of the sixth inning when Adams led off with a single and followed that with a steal of second base. After two outs,
Austin Roth's single to center field chased Adams around to make it 5-2.
The Albright defense also had some highlights. Brescancine made a slick defensive play at third in the top of the sixth, fielding a hard-hit ball and turning it into a 5-4-3 double play to help squash a potential Marywood threat. Pennypacker also contributed on defense, making an outstanding diving grab in right field.
On the hill, Fisher allowed just a run on three hits through four innings.
Shaun O'Reilly earned the win in relief, also allowing a run on three hits in three innings of work.
Daron Pijanowski picked up the save, striking out five of the nine batters he faced in two innings. Albright pitchers recorded 11 strikeouts.
Adams and Roth each had two of the Lions' seven hits. Albright also walked six times.
The Lions return to action on Thursday at Neumann at 3 p.m.
