The UT Martin Baseball team opened the 2020 season over the weekend. The Skyhawks traveled to Birmingham, Alabama for opening day to take on St. Louis out of the Atlantic 10 conference.
Game 1: The Skyhawks claimed their first opening day win over the Ryan Jenkins era, by picking up an 8-4 win. UT Martin struggled early on in the contest but recovered to send the game to the 9th inning tied at 4. The Billiken defense fell apart in the final frame, as walks, errors, and wild pitches would see UT Martin take an 8-4 lead. Preseason All-American Nick Wohlbold got the win on the day as struck out 2 of the final 3 batters for UTM to seal the deal. Senior Sean Dixson led the way offensively in Game 1 with 2 hits, 3 RBIs, and 3 runs scored on the afternoon.
Game 2: The middle part of the series was much less favorable to the Skyhawks, as the Billikens responded with a 9-2 victory. An early 5-0 lead was too much for UT Martin to overcome, as they suffered their first loss of the season. Freshman Will LaFollette provided the only UT Martin scoring of the day with 2-RBI Single in the 6th, while Sam Folks was tagged with the loss on the mound for UTM.
Game 3: In the rubber match on Sunday, UT Martin got started on the right foot by taking an early 2-0 lead. LaFollette and fellow Freshman Christian Hall scored back to back RBIs to spark the offense. However, St. Louis responded with 4 runs of their own in the 2nd inning to take the lead. 3 more runs followed in the 4th inning and suddenly UT Martin was in a big hole once again. Another run in the 5th brought the number to 8 unanswered runs before Houston Wright hit a sacrifice fly to score UT Martin's 3rd run but it was too little too late, as St. Louis held on to win 10-3. Hall led the offense with 3 hits and an RBI on the day, while Petry was tagged with the loss.
The team returns to action on Wednesday as they travel to take on Alabama A&M.
Comments