Galloway, NJ – Cairn University baseball won their opening game of the new season on Tuesday afternoon with an 11-6 victory at Stockton University. The Highlanders used a high-powered seventh inning to score five runs and break a 3-3 tie with the Ospreys.
Matt Trotman picked up the win for the Highlanders on the mound after pitching three scoreless innings with one hit and one strikeout.
Sam Dralle started the game for Cairn and pitched the first three innings.
Eric Stinglen and
Ben Chapman also had turns on the mound.
The Highlanders tied the game at 3-3 in the fourth inning and turned up the offense in the seventh inning.
Caleb Lang started it off with a single that scored
Joey Nieves-Markee. Lang also hit a sacrifice fly in the eighth inning to score
Brett Marks.
Alejandro Fernandez and
Aaron Takacs also singled in the seventh inning to score runs, while
Matthew Buckery doubled to bring home Lang. Cairn added two more runs in the top of the ninth inning after singles from Marks and Nieves-Markee.
Cairn's defense also stepped up in the game to stop the Osprey's from getting on the board after their first three runs. Highlights from the defense came in the form of two double plays in the fourth and fifth innings.
The Ospreys finished out the bottom of the ninth after adding three runs to their total. Stephen Edelstein singled to bring home a run before two runs scored on a fielding error by the Highlanders. Matt Poinsett led Stockton with one hit and two runs batted in.
Caleb Lang and
Aaron Takacs led the Highlanders with three hits each; Lang had three RBIs followed by Takacs and Nieves-Markee with two each. Mathew Buckery,
Caleb Moore and
Jacob Allen each scored two runs for the Highlanders.
Caleb Lang hit the game's only triple, while
Matthew Buckery and
Trent Fiori each hit a double.
The Highlanders moved to 1-0 to start the season, while Stockton dropped to 0-3 overall with the loss. Cairn will next travel to Florida for their spring break trip where they will play seven games in six days.
