The Muhlenberg baseball team broke out for 23 runs and 27 hits on the second day of the Bison Baseball Classic, splitting a pair of games to return home from its opening weekend with a 2-1 record.

The Mules opened the day with a 9-8 loss to Stevenson in an exciting game that saw the lead change hands twice in the last three half-innings. In the nightcap, they scored multiple runs in five innings to defeat Gallaudet, 15-4.

New sources of offense sparked Muhlenberg. Sophomore Ryan Hebert, who missed all of last season with an injury, went 4-for-7 with a double and two triples. Sophomore Evan Spano, who only pitched last year, had three hits, including a double and a triple, and scored four runs in the Gallaudet game.

Junior Justin Kimmel, who also had only pitched as a Mule, drove in four runs.

Muhlenberg led the first game 5-1 before Stevenson plated five runs in the top of the fourth. The score remained 6-5 until the bottom of the eighth, when Spano's one-out triple to straightaway center sparked a rally.

Junior Robert Cappadona tied the score with a single to right, and sophomore Thomas Rodgers greeted a new pitcher by doubling down the line on the first pitch, bringing in Cappadona with the go-ahead run.

Kimmel, in his first career at-bat, put the Mules up 8-6 with a pinch-single.

The Mustangs scored three runs in the top of the ninth, however. Junior Cameron Miller just missed a game-tying home run in the bottom of the ninth and had to settle for a double, but he was stranded on second.

Junior Isaac Spiegel pitched three hitless innings in relief.

Hebert broke the ice in the third inning of the Gallaudet game by hitting a long drive to deep right-center and circling the bases. Originally ruled an inside-the-park home run, it was later changed to a triple and error because the right fielder misplayed the ball when he went to pick it up.

Regardless, it was one run, and the first of many the Mules would score. Cappadona scored on a throwing error after stealing third later in the inning and belted a two-run triple in the fourth.

Kimmel hit a two-run single in the sixth and an RBI double in the eighth.

Freshman Ben Kollender doubled in a run in his first career at-bat in the eighth, and Spano's two-run double highlighted a four-run ninth.

Junior Paul Poppert (pictured above) struck out seven, tying a career high, in six innings to earn the win, and junior Jake Lebovitch fanned a career-high seven in three relief innings to pick up the save.