KINGSPORT, Tenn. – The Mount Vernon Nazarene University baseball team split a pair of games to begin play in the NAIA National Tournament opening round on Monday, May 17, at Hunter Wright Stadium.
In the team’s first game, MVNU defeated the University of Northwestern Ohio by a score of 5-4.
But top-ranked Tennessee Wesleyan jumped out early and rolled to a 12-3 win in the Cougars’ second game.
MVNU jumped on top of the Racers early in the first game, scoring three runs in the first inning. RBIs from Aaron Saal, Cameron Miller and Casey Kalman gave the Cougars the early advantage. The Racers battled back in the bottom of the second when two runs scored on a single by Tyson Scheumann.
But MVNU responded with a run in the top of the third thanks to an RBI double from Jake Glover that scored Andrew Miller.
A Racer run in the bottom of the third on a Christian Perez sacrifice fly cut the MVNU lead to 4-3.
UNOH battled back to tie the game in the bottom of the eighth on an RBI single by Bryant Diel.
Toby Walker was the hero for MVNU in the ninth. The junior hit an RBI single to score the go-ahead run for the Cougars. Cruz McFadden came into the game in the bottom of the ninth and got the save, preserving the Cougar victory.
Josh Pettit got the win for the Cougars after pitching seven strong innings. He allowed just five hits and two earned runs while striking out four Racers.
Saal went 3-for-4 at the plate with an RBI and a run scored.
Walker collected two hits in five plate appearances. He also had an RBI and a run scored.
Yadi Rivera had two hits and a run to lead the Racers.
Jake Carlsen allowed four runs (three earned) on eight hits and two walks with four strikeouts over the first six innings for UNOH. Kyle Perrett suffered the loss, allowing one earned run on two hits with three strikeouts over the final three innings the Racers.
The Bulldogs jumped on top of the Cougars early in Game 2. Zach Hoguelsson hit a grand slam in the first inning, and Tennessee Wesleyan rolled from there to a 12-3 win.
The bomb was Hoguelsson’s only hit of the day, though he finished with five RBIs. Bryce Giles and Carson Ford had three hits and three runs each. Gary Mattis was also strong for the Bulldogs with two hits including a homer, three runs and three RBIs.
Robert Gonzalez got the win for TWU, allowing two earned runs on 11 hits and two walks with one strikeout.
Joe Poremsky was perfect at the plate for MVNU. The freshman finished 3-for-3 with a walk, Andrew Miller was 3-for-5 at the plate with a run scored, Glover finished the second game 2-for-3 at the plate with an RBI and Hogan Heck was 1-for-3 with an RBI to lead the Cougars.
