Castleton Edges Whitworth 3-2

by Mak Karge, Sports Information Assistant

LOS ANGELES – Castleton University scored three unearned runs in the top of the fifth for a 3-2 non-conference baseball victory over Whitworth on Friday afternoon in a game played at Occidental College.

The Spartans won their season-opener while the Pirates fell to 3-4.  Whitworth plays a double-header tomorrow at Occidental, then finishes the trip to Los Angeles at Cal Lutheran on Sunday morning.

Whitworth scored two runs in the first to open a quick 2-0 lead. Jaxsen Swenum and Liam Fitzpatrick scored on Tyler Bailey's two-run triple.

The Spartans took the lead with a three-run fifth inning, taking advantage of an error early in the frame.  Davis Mikell capped the rally with an RBI single.

The Pirates got runners on the corners with two outs in the ninth, but weren't able to push across the tying run.

Garrett Moran threw five innings for Castleton allowing just the two initial runs. Mikell, Andy Kenosh, and Joe Gratton supported Moran to close out the game with four scoreless innings. Moran earned the win, starting the season 1-0.

Ryan Kingma (2-1) started on the mound for Whitworth, and pitched the first six innings allowing six hits and no earned runs. Connor Grydtal pitched three innings, giving up no runs on one hit.

Fitzpatrick, Bailey and Howell each went 2-3 to lead Pirate hitters.