The Muhlenberg baseball team pounded out 20 hits, including two home runs, to defeat Gettysburg, 15-5, in its 2021 season opener.
The Bullets took an early lead in the nightcap and held off the Mules, 8-4, to gain the split.
Freshman
Jonathan Toth started the hit parade as the second Muhlenberg batter of the first game, hitting a home run to left-center. He joins Kevin Van Lenten (1997) as the only known Mule players to hit a home run in their first career at-bat.
Senior
Skyler Petrie added a two-run double later in the frame to give the Mules a 3-0 lead, and in his next at-bat he hit a home run of his own. It was the first career round-tripper for Petrie
(pictured above), who has nine extra-base hits among his 13 career hits.
Muhlenberg led 7-5 before putting the game away with eight runs in the bottom of the eighth. Senior
Cameron Miller brought in the first two runs with a single, and junior
Ryan Hebert (triple), Toth (double) and senior
Justin Kimmel (single) also had run-scoring hits.
Hebert, Toth and senior
Robert Cappadona, the top three batters in the order, all had three hits, while freshmen
Jake Braet and
Jack Kent recorded a pair of hits apiece in their collegiate debuts.
The 15 runs were the most scored by the Mules in a season-opening game since 2012 and were plenty for senior
Truman Devitt, who pitched six strong innings to earn the win. The righty allowed only four hits and one earned run while striking out seven. Junior
Brian Martorano finished off the game with a scoreless ninth, fanning two of the three batters he faced.
Muhlenberg never led in the nightcap, falling into an early 3-0 hole. The Mules were retired in order in the first four innings but exploded for three runs to tie the game in the fifth on four straight two-out hits: a triple by Petrie, a double by sophomore
Christian Schwarz, a single by Braet and a triple by Kent.
Gettysburg went back ahead with four runs in the next half-inning, however. Muhlenberg got the tying run to the plate in the sixth and eighth innings but could manage only one more run, on an RBI single by Schwarz.
The Mules totalled 32 hits in the two games.
