The Middlebury baseball team opened its season with a doubleheader featuring a pair of seven-inning contests on Saturday at Emory. The Panthers fell 19-5 in the first game, while the hosts won the nightcap 12-2.
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GAME ONE HIGHLIGHTS
- The Eagles took the early lead with three runs in the bottom of the first inning on a two-run double by Matthew Sicoli and a sacrifice fly from Jack Halloran.
- Middlebury sliced the deficit with a pair of tallies in the second. Gus Parker drew a one-out walk and moved to second on a single from Will Ashley. The pair scored on a single through the left side by Joe Basso to make it a 3-2 contest.
- Emory responded with three runs in the home half on a two-run base knock from Aidan Conley and a sac fly from Sicoli for a 6-2 lead.
- The visitors battled back, moving to within a pair (6-4) in the top of the third on a run-scoring fielder's choice off the bat of Ashley and a double steal where Ben Slaughter scampered home from third.
- The Eagles pushed their lead to eight (12-4) with six runs in the bottom of the stanza, including an RBI double by Halloran that plated a pair.
- Emory added six runs in the fourth to push the advantage to 18-4.
- The Panthers tallied a single run in the fifth when Parker launched his first homerun of the season over the centerfield fence before Halloran answered with a roundtripper in the sixth for the final 19-5 score.
GAME TWO HIGHLIGHTS
- Middlebury grabbed a 1-0 edge in the second inning when Anthony Pellagrini blasted a homer over the left-field wall.
- The Eagles took the lead for good in the bottom of the frame on a two-run single from Zach Hanson.
- Emory pushed the advantage to 6-1 with four runs in the third, including a double down the left-field line by Jonah Wronski to drive in Brok Liu and Zach Wasserlauf.
- Pellagrini made it a 6-2 contest, sending his second homer to left to lead off the fourth.
- The Eagles posted five runs in the sixth and added another in the seventh for the 12-2 score.
NOTES
- Pellagrini finished with a career-best two RBI and two runs scored in the second game.
- The programs played for the sixth and seventh meetings in the all-time series.
The teams wrap up their three-game weekend set on Sunday with the first pitch of the single game scheduled for 10:00 a.m.