The Castleton baseball team combined for 25 hits in their doubleheader against Southern Maine Friday afternoon, using a ninth-inning rally to claim the Game 1 victory before untimely errors cost them Game 2, resulting in the series split.
 
Game 1: Castleton 13, Southern Maine 6
 
The Spartans' bats were on fire in Friday's opener, with the team's 15 hits serving as the most since their March 20 win over RPI. Reece de Castro and Evan Keegan ran the show for Castleton at the plate, combining to go 6-8 with four runs and seven RBIs, while Riley Orr (3-6) earned his third win on the season, allowing four runs and striking out a pair through five innings of work.
 
The Huskies (23-17, 10-6 LEC) opened up the scoring Friday with a run in the bottom of the first before Castleton (12-21-1, 5-11 LEC) responded to take their first lead of the game in the third.
 
Jesus Cardenas got things started with a walk, advancing to second off de Castro's first hit of the day. Tyler McLain loaded the bases after getting hit by a pitch before an RBI single from Keegan, drawn walk by Jackson Cardozo and throwing error gave the Spartans the 3-1 lead.
 
Southern Maine would score three unanswered runs over the next two innings, but RBIs from Hunter Perkins, Addison Schaub and de Castro — his first of three in the game — put Castleton back up two before their offense exploded in the final frame
 
With a 8-5 lead heading into the ninth, the Spartans racked up six hits and five RBIs to put the game out of reach. Singles from Jake O'Brien and Schaub set Ryan Lawrence up with runners at the corners, before the senior laid down a sac bunt to score O'Brien. The Spartans then strung together four hits from Kannon Dush, de Castro, McLain and Keegan to give them a 13-5 lead.
 
Entering the game in relief, Owen Phelps allowed the Huskies to take one run back before retiring three of the next four batters to clinch the 13-6 Game 1 win.
 
Game 2: Castleton 5, Southern Maine 9
 
Castleton kept the offense rolling racking up another 10 hits in Game 2, but early errors cost the Spartans in a game that came down to the final two innings. Aubrey Ramey made the start for Castleton, allowing five runs — just two earned — in six innings before Adam Winchell (1-2) took the loss, letting up four decisive runs in the eighth.
 
The Huskies opened up Game 2 with a three-run first inning, just one of which was earned. Ramey struck out the first batter he faced, but a throwing error by Schaub after the ball hit the dirt set the runner up on first anyways, advancing to second on a failed pickoff attempt before he eventually scored on a sac fly. Southern Maine would add two more runs on a walk and lineout to take the 3-0 advantage after one.
 
As was the case in the first meeting, however, the Spartans put together a run in the middle innings, scoring a pair of runs in the fourth before RBIs from Keegan and McLain — who finished the season in first and second in the category respectively — gave Castleton the 5-3 lead. Another error in the sixth inning would tie the game at five before the Huskies used a four-run eighth inning to take Game 2 9-5.
 
With the Game 2 loss, the Spartans finish in seventh place in the LEC and see their 2022 season come to a close.