RADNOR, Pa. – The Cairn University baseball team dropped their 2023 season opener on the road to non-conference adversary Cabrini University by a score of 12-2 at Cabrini-Carroll field on Wednesday afternoon. The contest was deemed final after the top of the eighth inning due to darkness.
 
Cabrini (1-0), a 31-win team and near NCAA At-Large selection a year prior, added a pair of runs in both the first and second innings to take a 4-0 lead over Cairn (0-1) entering the third inning. The Diamond Cavs exploded in the third and fourth frames, plating two runs in the third before crossing five runners in the fourth inning and led 11-0 after the fourth.
 
The Highlanders got on the board in the eighth and final frame, when freshman Zach Bauers (Cooper City, FL / Cooper City HS) laced an RBI-double off the fence in centerfield to score sophomore Dylan Jackson (Levittown, PA / Chestnut Hill College). Senior Joe Greenwood (Wall, NJ / Calvary Academy) followed that up with an RBI-knock to notch the second run of the bout for Cairn.
 
Jackson paced the Cairn offense with a game-high three hits on a three-for-four day at the plate in his Highlander debut. Bauers and Greenwood each followed with a pair of hits and an RBI a-piece. Sophomore Joe Battaglia (Brielle, NJ / Brentwood Academy) got the opening-day start, tossing two innings, scattering five hits, four runs, and a pair of walks. Freshman Evan Hughes (Levittown, PA / Neshaminy HS) and graduate student Jarrett Johnson (Edison, NJ / Timothy Christian) each tossed a scoreless inning in relief for Cairn.
 
The Highlanders will be back on the field on Saturday, March 4 when they make their home debut against non-conference foe Hood College in a doubleheader inside the Stillman Complex starting at 12 PM.