The Muhlenberg baseball team built an early lead and held on for an 8-7 win against Neumann in its home opener.

With a 10-3 record, the Mules have matched the fewest games needed to reach double digits in victories since 1928. That team 94 years ago won its first 10 games and finished 11-0. Since then, the Mules have gotten to 10 wins in 13 games six times (1954, 1969, 2005, 2012, 2013 and 2022), but never faster. 

Senior Evan Spano pitched five solid innings to earn his first win of the season, senior Will Nomura worked the last 1 2/3 for his third save of the season, and senior Thomas Rodgers made two big plays, one offensive and one defensive, late in the game.

Muhlenberg trailed 1-0 before plating four runs in the third. Freshman Aidan Legner singled in the first run, then teamed with senior Ryan Hebert on a double steal that turned into another run when the throw from the catcher was wild. Junior Jake Swerdloff brought in the third run with his third triple of the season and scored on a sacrifice fly.

Swerdloff added a second RBI with a single in the fifth.

The Mules added two runs in a bizarre sixth inning in which none of the seven batters they sent to the plate put the ball in play. Three walks, a hit batter, a stolen base, a passed ball and a wild pitch combined to extend Muhlenberg's lead to 7-3.

Rodgers (pictured above) led off the seventh with a home run that cleared the fence just inside the foul pole in left. It was his fourth career home run, and it proved to be the difference in the game.

The Knights (4-6) cut their 8-3 deficit to 8-7 by scoring four runs in the eighth. The had the tying run on first before Rodgers ended the inning by throwing out the runner on a steal attempt. 

Neumann got the tying run to second with two outs in the ninth, but Nomura struck out the third hitter in the lineup to nail down his seventh career save.

Spano allowed only four hits and one earned run in his best start of the season, picking up his first win on the mound since 2019. He fanned four and retired 14 of the last 16 hitters he faced.

Hebert reached base in four of his five plate appearances.