MONTGOMERY, Ala. -- The Castleton baseball team dropped the opening game of its Alabama trip to Edgewood, 12-4, Thursday afternoon at Neal Posey Field.

Hits were scattered across seven players in the Castleton (3-4) lineup, paced by Tyler McLain and Addison Schaub with two apiece. McLain was tabbed with two RBIs while Kannon Dush and Evan Keegan earned one each. The squad drew eight walks as Jared Cafasso was given free passes in three of his five plate appearances. On the base paths, the Spartans were 3-for-3 on stolen base attempts.

Starting pitcher Brayden Howrigan took the loss on the mound, seeing 3.2 innings of action with five strikeouts. Joseph Voli picked up three strikeouts with one earned run in two innings of relief. The Spartans utilized five different arms including Michael Malloy who made his season debut.

Edgewood (1-3) tacked on three runs in each of the first two frames to take a 6-0 advantage. The Spartans got its first hit of the ballgame from Reece de Castro in the third, extending the gradate student's hit streak to seven. One inning later, CU got on the board after McLain and Schaub singled, Cafasso walked to load the bases, and Dush took four balls for an RBI walk.

Midway through the fourth inning, the game entered a weather delay that lasted just over an hour. Once play resumed, Edgewood got its run back on a wild pitch. Voli took over with two runners aboard, but put away his first batter on strikes to leave them stranded. The Spartans faced a new pitcher to begin the fifth as de Castro reached via error, advanced to second, and reached third on an E5. He scored thanks to a two-out single by Keegan, cutting the Eagle lead to 7-2.

Cafasso and Dush got on base to start the sixth as McLain stepped in with two down, depositing a double to left field to put the lead within three. However, the Spartans were held to one hit in the final three innings while Edgewood added five, powered by a four-run seventh, to seal the victory.

The Spartans are back in action at Huntingdon College tomorrow, battling the host Hawks at 5 p.m. EST.