LAKELAND, Fla. – For the third straight season, the No. 8 Colorado Mesa baseball team opened the season with a win. This year's season opening win came against the Florida Southern Mocs on Wednesday (Feb. 7) evening in a 4-3 win.
After spotting the Mocs two runs in the first, true freshman
Ethan Nunez led off the inning with a triple to right field in his first collegiate plate appearance. He came around on a sacrifice fly by second baseman Jonathon Gonzalez.
Nunez got the start in right field in the game and became the first true freshman to start game one of the season for the Mavericks since 2015 when Zach McLeod and Bligh Madris started game one against UC San Diego on February 6, 2015.
The Mavericks took the lead in the top of the third inning as
Brent Renteria and
Josh Romans scored on near back-to-back wild pitches.
Ethan Nunez followed up with a RBI groundout that scored
Paul Schoenfeld to give the Mavericks a 4-2 lead.
Florida Southern got a run back in the fifth as the Mavericks made a pair of errors in the inning that led to a Moc run which cut the lead to 4-3.
Liam Hohenstein got the start in game one and after a rough first inning but settled in and pitched five complete innings. Over the course of his five innings, he would allow three runs (two earned) on six hits, walked none, and struck out seven in 82 total pitches to improve to 1-0 on the year.
Newcomer
Tyler Glowacki took over for Hohenstein and pitched well but ran into trouble in the bottom of the seventh inning. Florida Southern worked the bases loaded with one out but Glowacki got a strikeout and induced an infield pop-out to thwart the threat.
Fellow newcomer
Ethan Voss pitched the final inning and a third allowing just one hit to pick up the save. Voss was able to strike out the final batter of the game looking.
Colorado Mesa was only able to record two hits in the game to secure the win as they were walked eight times and drew one hit by pitch. The last time the Mavericks were two-hit and came away with a victory came on April 21, 2012 when they defeated now MSU Denver 4-0.
Despite only having two hits in the game, the Mavericks only struck out three times while the pitching staff was able to strand 11 Moccasin runners.
The Mavericks will continue their Florida road swing tomorrow as they begin their three-game series with No. 15 Rollins. First pitch is scheduled for 3:00pm from Alfond Stadium in Winter Park.
