Baseball Can’t Climb Back into Season Opener in Florida

Recap, photo courtesy of Amherst College

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Amherst College saw #13 Concordia University Chicago plate nine runs in the opening inning and were unable to climb back into their 2019 season opener, falling to the Cougars 13-3 in Sunday afternoon at Heritage Park.

The Mammoths (0-1) held the Cougars to just one run over the final four innings of play, but the Cougars (3-1), had clearly already brushed off the off-season rust that plagued Amherst in the opening inning.

Amherst scored all three runs in the fifth inning, when they collected two of their five hits. Joe Palmo '21 knocked home classmate Kai Terada-Herzer with a double to right field and scored on an error. Will Murphy '21 picked up an RBI single to score catcher Severino Simeone '20 who, like Terada-Herzer, had drawn a walk.

Junior transfer Jack Harlan tossed an inning of shutout ball with two strikeouts in his Amehrst debut.
Brody Mariotti hit his second homer of the year and also drove in three for the Cougars, who had five players record multi-hit games.

Ryan Davila got the start and allowed just one earned run in 4.2 innings while striking out six. Robert Perna and Chris Woods worked scoreless innings of relief.

The Cougars started their scoring with two outs in the first inning after Jose Mercado led off with an infield single, then stole two bases. Mariotti started things with a single to left. Two errors on ground balls allowed CUC to bring a second run home and put two in scoring position. Mateo Calle followed with a single up the middle to make it 4-0 Cougars. A hit by pitch and a Brayden Benavides single made it a five run game. Mercado continued the inning by smashing a triple to right center scoring two. Keegan Tyrell and Bryan VanDuser added hits in the inning as CUC tallied nine runs in the inning while bringing 12 to the plate.

CUC added two more in the third. With two out and one on VanDuser doubled down the left field line to score Mercado. Mariotti then got into the first pitch of his at bat, driving a deep shot over the left field wall.

Amherst got three runs back in the fifth on two hits, aided by a CUC error. The Cougars quickly answered in the bottom of the inning when Brandon tripled off the wall, scoring VanDuser.

Andrew Ferrero '19 fell to 0-1 on the year, though only one of the runs he allowed in the first inning was earned.
Carson Glazier '20 struck out six batters over three innings and Landry Mayo '20 fanned a pair in the sixth.