While most of campus was away on Spring break the University Baseball team stayed behind in preparation for their upcoming league play. They began the week with their home opener against Niagara.

Niagara led the Bison early with a home run on the second pitch and another run soon to follow. The Orange and Blue retaliated with back-to-back singles from Tyler Dunn ’25 and Logan Kellerman ’22. Mason Kelly ’23 moved the runners a base on a sac bunt before Kyle Lyons ’23 hit a single tying the game at two.

Niagara responded in the sixth inning, securing two runs and a home run in the seventh putting 5-2 on the scoreboard. Anthony Sherwin ’24  combated their runs with a double resulting in a score on a sac fly from Grant Voytovich ’24. Jacob Corson ’24 and Brendan Lowery ’22 then reached base on a single and a walk, setting up Dunn’s hit to right field tying the game at 5-5.

However Niagara found their winning runs on in the ninth resulting in an 8-5 loss for the Orange and Blue. Lyons, Dunn and Corson had various hits as the Bison had 11 overall. The second game of Friday’s doubleheader was called off due to darkness at the top of the fifth, thus not counting officially.

On Tuesday (March 15) the Bison took on the Panthers in the home opener for Pitt. The Bison fell behind early as Pitt took over the game with eight runs in the opening frame, adding two runs in the second, one in the third and six in the fourth.

The Bison had some runs in the second and third innings with Dunn scoring, Chris Cannizzaro ’22 and Corson singling home Sherwin.

Pitt scored six more times in the sixth inning pulling away from the Bison. In the fourth Lyons had an RBI double scoring Kellerman and Voytovich and Matt Alexander ’25 each had an RBI in the ninth inning. The Bison’s last run came in the ninth inning as an RBI double from Henry Novicki ’23 scored Nic Adamo ’24.

The Orange and Blue used five pitchers with Renn Lints ’22  pitching a career-best three innings. First-years Brady Karp’ 25 and Derrick Yuengling ’25 made their debut.

On Wednesday (March 17) the Bison were back on the mound and battled Mount St. Mary’s until the tenth inning when they had a walk-off home run, resulting in a loss for the Orange and Blue.

“It was back and forth pretty much the whole game. It was a tough one, but good preparation for league play that starts this weekend,” Lyons said.

The Orange and Blue began with a lead as Lyons launched two RBI doubles that scored Kelly and Novicki leaving the Orange and Blue with a 2-0 lead in the two of the second.

Brady Swenson ’25 made his first career start for the Bison, not allowing a hit through the first two innings and two strikeouts to match. However, Mount St. Mary’s reciprocated with two runs to tie the game at  2-2.

Mount St. Mary’s took the lead in the fifth while the Orange and Blue only managed one hit through the final four innings with a single from Lyons, but still managed to find the tying run in the top of the ninth sending the game to extras. Mount St. Mary’s secured the win with a home run to center field resulting in a Bison 4-3 loss.

“After the week we were disappointed with the outcome but there were some positives to take away going into conference play. We love the group of guys we have and couldn’t be more confident that this is the group to win a championship. This upcoming weekend will be our first chance to prove that,” Kelly said. 

Despite these non-conference losses, they had a huge weekend against Navy in their Patriot League home opener. Navy was projected to come in second in the Patriot League preseason poll, however, the Bison won three out of four games in the series. Sherwin and Cannizzaro led the team with over .600 hitting averages on the weekend. The Orange and Blue will continue Patriot League play this coming weekend against Holy Cross and Army.