Aidan Thompson
Assistant Sports Editor
The Anchormen didn’t get the start they hoped for during their three-game opener against Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. They finished 1-2 this past weekend, but despite the losing effort, multiple players started off this season strong.
The first of three games was won by RIC. They started off game one, down two runs to zero in the top of the second. It wasn’t until junior Cal Parillo hit a single into left field that the scoring window was open.
Junior Cameron Santerre would strike first for RIC as he scored the first run in the third inning. A quick start for both teams, but they couldn’t keep it up as they went scoreless for the next four innings.
The rest of the offense belonged to RIC as Freshman Lucas McElroy reached on an error by the second baseman and advanced to second. Junior Justin Wardwell would advance to third as Senior Joey Coro scored. Wardwell would score again, and finally Junior David Iannuccilli would finish the game by scoring the final run in the ninth inning. RIC walked away with their first win of this season as the final score was 4-2.
The next two games would not go well for RIC as they dropped both. During their second meeting against Southwestern University, the game was more back and forth in the beginning.
Landon Durdi of the Pirates hit a double to right field and gained the RBI as Trent Raschke went on to score in the second inning. The third inning saw offense from both teams. Santerre doubled to left field and gained the RBI as CJ Almagno scored for the Anchormen.
Jacob Tanner of the Pirates struck back, scoring a run of his own and pushing them to a 2-1 run lead. Raschke of the Pirates scored again, notching his second run of the game to push the Pirates’ lead to two. The Anchormen couldn’t get the job done, Santerre scored again, but it wasn’t enough as the Pirates won this game 3-2.
The last of these three games saw the most offense played. The Pirates struck first, as Josh Endo scored. Izaiah Rivera of RIC would strike back and score a run of his own due to Santerre reaching second on an error.
The Pirates started to run away with this game in the fourth inning, tagging RIC for three runs. McElroy took that personally and hit his first home run of the season in the top of the fifth inning, cutting into the Pirates’ three-run lead.
McElroy’s homer boosted the spirits of the Anchormen and they began to heat up. They added on multiple runs in the sixth inning and took a 5-4 lead, their first of this game. The Pirates snatched those runs right back in the bottom of the eighth. Endo extended the Pirates’ lead, driving in the winning run on a two RBI single, giving the Pirates the victory 7-5.
Despite this loss, Rivera finished the game 3-for-4 while also on an RBI. He is going to be a key piece in the Anchormen’s success this season if he keeps this up.
RIC walks away from the weekend 1-2. They will have a whole week off before battling Baldwin Wallace University at the Snowbird Invitational game on Saturday, March 4 at 10:30 a.m. in Florida.