TUCSON, AZ- Baseball wins their first game of the season Saturday night in Tucson, Arizona. They defeated previously undefeated Augsburg by a score of 9-8 in 13 innings. Wesleyan had just come off of a loss to Jamestown earlier in the day in a shortened seven inning game that saw the Cardinals get beat badly, 14-3. The team regrouped and put together a stellar performance to end the day on a good note.

Wesleyan held an 8-5 lead going into the 8^th inning, before a big top of the 8^th for Augsburg tied it up. The score would remain deadlocked at eight until the bottom of the 13^th when Adam Geibel '22 stepped up and hit a ball to third which was mishandled allowing the winning run to come across and score. Wesleyan gets their first win of 2022 to improve to 1-2, while Augsburg (4-1) suffers their first loss of the season.
 
HIGLIGHTS (9-8 W)

• Pitchers on both sides had a strong start to the game, holding the opposing offenses scoreless through three innings. Augsburg's Austin Jerylo allowed only two hits while striking out two. Wesleyan's Patrick Murphy '25 held Augsburg without a hit while striking out four through three innings on play
• The offenses then came alive in the 4^th inning, with both teams putting up multiple runs. Augsburg started the top half of the inning with four hits, including a Jack Baumgart two-run single to give them a 4-0 lead.
• Wesleyan responded with three runs of their own in the bottom half. Luke Lasaracina '25 drove in Wes Fritch '22 who had singled to lead off the inning on a ground out. Following that, Jimmy Clifford '23 brought home the 2^nd run of the game on a single. It looked like the Cardinals were ready to pile on more when Cole Torino '24 hit one over the right fielder's head to drive in Clifford, but he tried to stretch it out into a triple and got thrown out ending the inning
• Augsburg capitalized on a leadoff triple, bringing him home on a sacrifice fly to extend their lead to 5-3. Wesleyan answered in the bottom half with an offensive outburst that saw five runs get driven in on four hits. Jack Scher '22 was a big reason for that with his two-run single that gave Wesleyan their first lead at 6-5. Lasaracina and Clifford would each drive in another later in the inning, giving Wesleyan an 8-5 lead
• That lead would hold until the top of the 8^th when Augsburg would go for four hits and three runs to tie the game back up. Scott Shield '22 would help stop the bleeding however, stranding the bases loaded to keep the game tied going into the bottom half
• The game would remain tied for the next four innings, before Wesleyan finally put it away in the bottom of the 13^th. Torino would lead the inning off with a single which was later followed by a Geibel ground ball to 3^rd base. The Augsburg third baseman made an error on the ball ultimately leading to Torino racing around the bases and scoring the winning run in walk-off fashion

 
NOTES:

• Ian Appleby '24 came in and pitched four scoreless innings of relief (5 strikeouts) to help Wesleyan pick up their first win of the season
• Wesleyan's 13 hits are the most in a single game since the 2019 season
• Fritch (3-for-6, 1 RBI) and Torino (3-for-6, 1 RBI) led the way for the Cardinals with three hits apiece

 
UP NEXT:
Baseball continues their games in Arizona with two Sunday against Hamline and Redlands.