Anna Maria Win First of the Season, Marching Past Martin Luther

Anna Maria Win First of the Season, Marching Past Martin Luther

AUBURNDALE, Fla – Sunday morning, the AMCATS played two games against Minnesota's Martin Luther College. The AMCATS were coming off a two-loss day yesterday against Lyndon State and knew they needed to straighten things out. Coming in to the day, Martin Luther was 0-2 in Florida as well. On the back of some stellar pitching and an explosive offense, AMC won both games to improve to 2-3 on the year.

For the AMCATS, freshman designated hitter Justin Robbins (Leominster, Mass) hit his first collegiate homerun which drove in a team and game-high three runs in the game. Freshman left fielder Noah Holland (Sandwich, Mass) also plated three runs in game one, going one-for-two. Freshman infielders Kino Gray (Brewster, Mass) and Jeff Falk (Enfield, Conn) each drove in two runs for the 'Cats. Sophomore centerfielder Adam Twitchell (Shrewsbury, Mass) had a team and game-high three hits on the day, getting himself a single, double and triple, finishing a home run short of the cycle. Twitchell also drove in a run in the 13-run route. On the mound, freshman right hander, Andrew Rodriques (East Providence, R.I.), making his second appearance of the season, started the game and pitched five innings. Rodriques only allowed four hits in his five innings of work and struck out five batters, only walking one. He only allowed one of the two runs that scored in the game which helped him earn the win. In relief, seniors Daniel Chambers (Westfield, Mass) and Trevor Brown (Gardner, Mass) each worked an inning in the game striking out a batter a piece and didn't allow a hit.

Martin Luther's offense was scarce as they were only able to muster four hits in the game. Senior outfielder Karl Kuschel (Mukwonago, Wisc) went one-for-one on the day and walked twice. Kuschel scored both Knights runs in the game. The Runs for Martin Luther were driven in by junior shortstop Matt Baehman (Neenah Falls, Wisc) and first baseman Jared Lindemann (Egg Harbor, Wisc). On the mound for the Knights in game one was sophomore Adam Kock (Mequon, Wisc). Kock worked four and a third innings, allowing 11 runs, 10 earned, on 11 hits, and five walks. He was only able to strikeout one AMCAT hitter.

The AMCATS would strike first in the bottom of the first inning when Shell singled to drive in Twitchell. That was just the first of five runs the 'Cats would score in the inning as Holland would hit a sacrifice fly to center that would score Greg Gehring (Southold, N.Y.). That was followed by Robbins' three run blast.

The Knights would grab a run back in the top of the second when Lindemann's single scored Kuschel for the first time.

In the bottom of the third, Anna Maria would strike for two more on a Holland single that scored Jake Crevier (Ware, Mass) and Tanner Jakola (Leominster, Mass) to run the score to 7-1.

The second half of the game more of the same as the AMCATS would score six more runs, four of which came in the fifth. The first coming off of a Nick Genatossio (Sutton, Mass) that drove in Holland. Gray would follow that up with a double which scored two to make the score 10-1. Twitchell would put another quarter in the merry-go-round as he doubled to score Gray. The 'Cats scored their final two runs in the sixth on a Falk double to push the score to 13-1.

Martin Luther plated their second run in the seventh on a Baehman sacrifice fly to center which scored Kuschel. The effort was not enough as the AMCATS would earn their first victory of the season 13-1.