The Muhlenberg baseball team opened the 2024 season by dropping a pair of close games at Rutgers-Newark.

The Mules led both games in the late innings but lost the opener, 5-4 in 10 innings, and the nightcap, 6-3.

In the first game, senior Ryan Friesen and junior Ethan Brochin combined to allow only eight hits and two earned runs. Friesen tossed the first five frames, matching his career high with 7 strikeouts and leaving with a 4-1 lead in what was scheduled to be a seven-inning game. Brochin allowed only three hits in a career-high 4.1 innings, and just one of the four runs he was charged with was earned.

Muhlenberg manufactured its first run of the season in the third when senior Nick Belli (pictured above) singled, stole second, went to third on a groundout and scored on a sacrifice fly by senior Jack Kent. After the next two batters walked, freshman Marc Quarrie brought in the second run with a double to right-center, his first career hit.

A bloop double by Kent and a wild pitch brought in two more runs in the fourth, but the Mules were shut out the rest of the game. 

Quarrie had two hits in his collegiate debut, while Belli reached base three times with a hit and two walks.

The nightcap was scoreless through four before junior Dylan O'Donnell led off the fifth with his first career hit for Muhlenberg, a single. After sophomore Mason Mehling walked, Belli sacrificed both runners into scoring position. O'Donnell scored on a wild pitch and Mehling on an error to give the Mules a 2-0 lead.

After senior Andrew DeLucia pitched a scoreless, hitless first two innings, freshman southpaw Luke Foley tossed the next four, allowing only two hits, fanning four and exiting with a 2-1 lead. The Scarlet Raiders went ahead with three in the seventh and tacked on two insurance runs in the eighth.

Kent had two more hits in the second game.