LYNDONVILLE, Vt. – Castleton opened its home-and-home series against Lyndon St. this afternoon by capturing its fourth straight victory with a 14-3 decision over the Hornets at the Skip Pound Complex.

Game two of today's doubleheader was suspended due to rain in the bottom of the seventh inning with the game tied at 1-1. The ballgame will be finished tomorrow afternoon at 2 pm prior to the start of the scheduled two-game set.

With the win, Castleton improves to 21-9 (13-4 NAC) on the season and has now won 12 of its last 14 games. The Hornets, meanwhile, fall to 6-17 overall and 5-7 in conference play.

Devin Hayes improved to 3-0 on the season after tossing six innings of three-run (two earned) baseball to go along with ten strikeouts. Jeff Williams, on the other hand, gave up 13 runs (nine earned) with five strikeouts in the losing effort.

Nick Swim paced the Spartan attack with two hits, a double and four RBIs; while Tyler Lord went 3-for-5 at the plate with a double, one RBI and three runs scored. Dan Errico added his fourth home run of the season with two RBIs and two runs scored.

Castleton wasted little time to get on the scoreboard, as it recorded five hits and four runs in the opening inning of play. With one on and one out, Swim brought home the first run of the ballgame with his tenth double of the season. Errico followed with an RBI single before Joshua Jennato brought him home with a single of his own. Jim Buckley capped off the scoring in the frame with an RBI double to hand the away side a 4-0 lead.

The Spartans tacked on two more in the following inning to extend their advantage to six. After Soren Pelz-Walsh led off the frame with a walk, Lord picked up his lone RBI of the game with a double. Vile then pushed Lord over to third with a sacrifice bunt, and Swim brought him home in the next at-bat with a sacrifice fly.

Lyndon St. responded with a run of its own in the bottom half of the second to close its gap to five. With two on and nobody out, Mike LoVerde hit an RBI single that plated the first Hornet run of the game and made it 6-1.

Following a scoreless third, Castleton was at it again in the top of the fourth, as Swim recorded his third RBI of the game. After Pelz-Walsh struck out, Lord reached first with a single before swiping second and third in the next at-bat. Later in the frame, Swim drove Lord home with his second hit of the day to push the away side's lead back to six.

In the following frame, the Spartans broke the game open with six runs to take a 13-1 lead. After back-to-back errors put runners on first and second, Buckley walked to load the bases. Tyler Hoare then stepped up and ripped a two-run single before Pelz-Walsh picked up his second hit of the day to load the bases once again.

Lord scored an unearned run in the next at-bat, as he reached base on an error, and Vile and Swim followed with back-to-back groundouts that plated a pair of runs and made it 13-1 in favor of Castleton.

The Hornets were able to score twice in the bottom of the sixth, but the Spartans countered with a homer from Errico in the seventh before Joey Gratton closed out the game with a scoreless inning to secure a 14-3 victory for Castleton.

These two squads are back in action tomorrow afternoon, as they will finish off the suspended game before finishing off the four-game set with a doubleheader at Spartan Field.