MONTGOMERY, Ala. – The Castleton baseball team finished its Alabama trip with matchups against MUW and Edgewood Saturday, taking a 5-4 victory over the Owls before a 16-12 setback against the Eagles in the afternoon.
The Spartans (4-6) got five RBIs from Kannon Dush while Tyler McLain and Evan Keegan collected hits in both contests. Hunter Perkins drew four walks on the day with a hit and two RBIs. Dylan Hedler had a breakout showing as the sophomore went 3-for-5 with two runs scored. The squad tied its 2022 home run total on Jack Boyle's first career bomb.
Riley Orr struck out 14 in a seven-inning start against MUW (2-8), earning the win in game one. Six different hurlers saw action in game two, led by Zack Marlow who tossed the final two frames with no runs, one hit, and three punch-outs.
GAME 1: Castleton 5, MUW 4
Batting in the home half, the Spartans jumped ahead in the first inning on a Keegan groundout that scored Reece de Castro. McLain, who logged the first hit of the day, came across thanks to the second hit by Perkins.
The Owls' first batter of the second inning reached on a dropped third strike, but Schaub caught the runner stealing and Orr fanned the next two to end the threat. Castleton extended the gap as Dush lofted a sacrifice fly to score Keegan, making it 3-0 after three complete.
Orr and MUW pitcher Campbell McCluney went toe-to-toe in the next innings as both offenses were held to limited production. The Owls put two in scoring position in the seventh on a pair of two-out singles, but the Spartans navigated out of it with Orr at 102 pitches. Nick Griffin made his first appearance in the next defensive half, escaping a similar situation with back-to-back strikeouts to keep MUW scoreless.
In the bottom of the eighth, Keegan led off with a single as Tyler Dubreuil stole second as the graduate student's pinch runner. Perkins drew a walk to put two on base but a Schaub bunt cut down Dubreuil at the hot corner. Dush came up to bat and hammered a double to left field, scoring Perkins and Schaub to provide insurance.
The Owls piled on four runs in the ninth, knocking three hits while drawing three walks. With the tying run on third and the go-ahead Owl at second, Joseph Voli put away the final batter on strikes to finalize the win.
GAME 2: Edgewood 16, Castleton 12
In the squads' second meeting at Neal Posey Field, Edgewood took the opening lead in decisive fashion with four runs in the second inning. The Spartans got one back in the next half-inning with singles from Ryan Lawrence and Brandon Ramirez.
The Eagles rallied with two down in the fourth, scoring four more before Perkins gunned down a fifth at the plate from left field for the third out. Two frames later, Lawrence singled and Trey LaVigne walked to lead off the fifth. After collecting his first career hit in the third, Hedler logged another single to load the bases. Dush reached on an unsuccessful fielder's choice to pick up an RBI, followed by a McLain single to score LaVigne. Perkins walked, plating another to cut the Eagle lead in half.
The third four-run inning came in Edgewood's next opportunity on six hits, all singles, to make it 12-4. CU piled on five hits in the bottom half, the biggest being a two-RBI triple by de Castro who Dush plated in the ensuing at-bat. The Eagles followed with one more four-run inning in the seventh, making it a nine-run margin at 16-7.
Castleton closed the gap as Dubreuil swiped his second base of the day and Elias Gomez walked, then Jared Cafasso drove in Dubreuil on his first career hit. A pinch-hitting Boyle came up next, blasting a three-run homer to cut the lead to five. After Marlow tossed a perfect eighth, Pallotto got plunked and Brady Clark singled in the bottom half. Dubreuil got a base knock, scoring Pallotto to make the score 16-12.
Marlow navigated around a leadoff single to retire three in a row, catching the last hitter looking. Despite a Boyle double, the Spartans could not muster another tally to fall in the weekend finale.
UP NEXT
The club returns to New England for its next challenge on Saturday, March 18, a doubleheader at Fisher set to commence at noon.
