Baseball Falters Late Against Heidelberg

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. -- The Mitchell College baseball team suffered a 13-11 setback to Heidelberg University on Friday afternoon.

After trailing the entire game, the Student Princes used a four-run eighth inning to vault into the lead. A three-run homer by Matt Psychas provided the go-ahead runs, and although Mitchell put the tying runs on base in the ninth, Heidelberg hung on for its first win of the season.

The Mariners got off to a great start by plating six runs in the first inning. Steve Cochrane got things rolling with a two-run double, and Markus Melendez followed with a two-run single through the left side to make it 4-0. After a single by Sam Majewski put runners at the corners with one out, Devyn McCarty knocked in a run with a double down the line in left and Justin Johnson added a sacrifice fly. 

Mitchell added a run in the third on an RBI single by McCarty and another in the fourth on a sacrifice fly by Steven Pagan. Peter Abate then drove in a pair of runs in the fifth as the Mariners led 10-7 halfway through the game.

Abate supplied another RBI single in the seventh to pad the margin to 11-8. Heidelberg got a run back in the home half of the frame to pull within two heading into the eighth. 

Jakari Pellegrini got the starting nod for the Mariners and gave up four earned runs on six hits and struck out four over 4.0 innings. Reliever Bryce Bedard took the loss, giving up six runs on 10 hits over 3.1 innings of work.

Mitchell (1-1 overall) will be back on the diamond on Saturday, March 2 against Otterbein College at 5:30 p.m.