Despite a canceled season debut at Aurora last week, UChicago men’s baseball began their belated season on a strong note over the weekend, snatching two out of three wins at Transylvania.

Baseball’s first game of the series got off to a rambunctious start Friday night as the Maroons pounded the Transylvania Bats with a relentless nine runs in two innings. Though Transylvania responded with three runs in the otherwise scoreless third and fourth innings, the Maroons came back with seven runs in the fifth, sixth, and seventh to leave the final score 16–3. 

The series’ second match, played on Saturday, March 2, began much more slowly. The Bats hit a single run in the first inning, but no more points would be scored until the fifth, when Chicago and Transylvania took one run each. Over the next four innings, Transylvania slowly but steadily added to their lead, outscoring the Maroons in every inning but the ninth. The match ended Bats 7, Maroons 3.

Despite their Game Twosetback, the Maroons finished theirweekend in a spectacular fashion in the second match of a long Saturday. Kicked off with a strong first quarter featuring two runs by third-year Payton Jancsy and fourth-year Ian Bohn, the Maroons ended the fifth with a 6–1 lead, a score that would remainunaltered through the end of the game.

Superb pitching was a constant throughout of the entire series. Standout performers for the weekend are led by first-year Kyle Petri, who pitched a stellar 16 strikeouts on Saturday’s second game. In match two, fourth-year Brenton Villasenor threw an impressive eight strikeouts to seven hits and one walk. In summation, the Maroon pitchers totaled 27 strikeouts on the weekend.