Junior John Icaza and freshman Chris Grillo hit home runs as the Muhlenberg baseball team defeated McDaniel, 8-4, in the first game of a Centennial Conference doubleheader. The Green Terror, who are ranked 22nd in Division III by D3baseball.com, came back to take the nightcap, 9-2.

The win in the opening game gave the Mules a 3-0 start in the CC for the first time since 2009, and it was their first against a ranked opponent in two years, since a 12-4 win at Gettysburg (also ranked 22nd) in 2014.

Other than the ranking, the two wins had something else in common: the starting pitcher. Junior Troy Elias, who earned the win against Gettysburg as a freshman, pitched into the fifth against McDaniel before he had to leave with an injury. He allowed no runs on five hits to a Green Terror team that came in fourth in Division III in scoring, averaging 9.9 runs per game.

Junior Ryan Banks came on in relief to earn the win, and freshman RJ Hennessey worked the final three frames for his first career save.

Icaza (pictured above) broke a scoreless tie with his seventh career home run with one out in the fourth. The next inning, Grillo belted his first career round-tripper with a runner on base to make it 3-0.

Icaza led off the sixth with a triple - one of four hits he had in the game - and scored on a single by senior Andrew Rava for the fourth run of the game. After McDaniel (22-4, 3-3) got two runs back in the bottom of the inning, the Mules (12-12, 3-1) broke the game open with four runs in the seventh.

Sophomore Eric Reitmeyer started the big inning with his team-leading 10th double of the season. Icaza and junior Robbie Hopes hit RBI singles, and two more runs came in on errors.

Hopes finished 3-for-5, while Grillo and Rava contributed to the 14-hit attack with a pair apiece.

In the nightcap, Muhlenberg erased an early 2-0 deficit with two in the fourth. Icaza doubled in the first run and came in on a sacrifice fly by Hopes. The Green Terror broke the tie with six runs in the bottom of the sixth.