AUBURNDALE, Fla. -- Starting off the season 0-2, the Castleton University baseball team got back on track and earned a doubleheader sweep of Northern Vermont-Lyndon Tuesday afternoon at the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex in Auburndale, Fla. With the two wins today, the Spartans improve their record to 2-2 while the Hornets fall to 0-5.

Castleton 13, Northern Vermont-Lyndon 10

The Spartans earned their first win of the season this morning in game one of the doubleheader. Jeremy Johnson, who leads the team in hits (eight) and steals (five), started off the game with a leadoff single to left field. Johnson then proceeds to steal two bases during Davis Mikell's at-bat. The Spartans took the early lead as Johnson scored easily on a Mikell ground out to first base. 

The Hornets were not down for long as the team tied the game at one in the second inning. Ryder Thornton started off the inning as he reached after Lawrence collected a throwing error. Michael Pena ripped a double down the third baseline shortly after, putting two runners in scoring position for the Hornets. Ryan Boucher fouled out down the right-field line in the very next at-bat, and Thornton scored easily on the tag to even the score at one.

The Spartans blew the game open in the third inning as Mikell led off with a hard single through the right side of the infield. As Camden Patten muffed the ball on a routine ground ball to second, Mikell slid over to third base while Evan Keegan reached on the error. Another fielding error gave the Spartans the lead shortly after as Mikell scored from third. After Alex Borsari was hit by a pitch, loading the bases, Jake Spielberg collected an RBI single, giving the Spartans a 3-1 lead. John Stewart III then scored on a wild pitch followed by an Andy Kenosh single that scored two more runs. As the inning came to a close, the Spartans opened up a 5-1 lead.

The Hornets would inch closer in the bottom half of the third inning as the team scored two runs to cut the deficit to 5-3. 

Runs came in abundance for the Spartans as the team added three more runs in the top half of the fourth inning. Keegan led off the inning with a walk and then Spartans were hit by a pitch to load the bases with no outs recorded. After a wild pitch which gave the Spartans a 7-3 lead, Kenosh reached on a throwing error and two more runs crossed the plate. 

Starting pitcher Garrett Moran, who earned the win in this morning's game, was pulled in the fifth inning as he gave up four runs on six hits in four innings of action. 

The Hornets would keep the Spartans off the board in the fifth and sixth innings while the team slowly cut into the deficit. As the Hornets cut the lead to 9-6 before the Spartans broke out the bats again in the seventh and tallied four more runs. 

Despite the Hornets matching the Spartans four runs in the bottom of the seventh, the Spartans held on to collect the 13-10 victory. 

Castleton 23, Northern Vermont-Lyndon 4

With the second game getting underway at Field #4 of the Lake Myrtle Sports Complex, the Spartans earned the two-game sweep in an old fashion slugfest. 

The Spartans once again began the scoring in the first inning as Johnson recorded an infield single. After another stolen base by Johnson, Samuel Rodriguez ripped an RBI single up the middle to give the Spartans the early 1-0 lead.  

Starting pitcher Zack Marlow was brilliant through the first three innings of play. He earned his first win of the season as he struck out six batters before surrendering the Hornets' first run in the fourth. During the fourth inning, the Hornets took advantage of some critical errors as the team cut the Spartans' lead to 5-3. Marlow shut down the Hornets' rally shortly after, striking out Tyler Roberge for his eighth strikeout of the game. 

The Spartans opened the flood gates in the bottom half of the fourth inning as the team tallied 15 total runs. With an inning lasting over an hour, the Spartans batted around twice as every player in the lineup scored at least one run. 

With the lead ballooned to 20-3 and the game but over, the Hornets collected a run off of reliever Richard Walker before the Spartans tallied three more runs in the bottom half of the sixth, finalizing the score at 23-4.

The Spartans' tallied 36 total runs in today's doubleheader, which is the most in a sweep of a doubleheader since scoring 30 runs against Colby-Sawyer back in 2016.

Castleton returns to action tomorrow, Wednesday, February 26 as it takes on Capital at the Chain O' Lakes Complex in Winter Haven, Fla., with the first pitch scheduled for 12 p.m.