The Saint Vincent College baseball team took the field for the first time in 371 days. The Bearcats split the season opener with Chatham winning game one 4-1 and dropping game two 12-5.

Game 1 – Saint Vincent 4, Chatham 1
Both starting pitchers held their own in the first four innings. Casey Jones for Saint Vincent gave up four hits with six strikeouts. The Cougars' Ryan Shawley allowed one hit with six punch outs of his own.

Chatham drew blood first in the top of the fifth with a single through the right side to score a runner from third. The Cougars loaded the bases late in the inning but Jones forced a pop-up to third to record the final out.

Chatham held the 1-0 lead until the bottom of the sixth as Jayke Saiani drove a single into centerfield as Zach Barberich and Johnny Daggs scored. After a pitching change, the Bearcats kept up the pressure as Justin Wright reached on an error as TJ Dailey crossed home plate.

Saiani scored himself in the inning as Jimmy Malone grounded out to second. Saint Vincent scored four runs on two hits and capitalized on two errors to take a 4-1 edge.

Matt Evans took over the mound for Jones in the top of the seventh and finished the game, giving up one hit in the save.

Saiani drove in two runs on his hit and scored one himself. Jones went six innings, allowing one run on eight hits and striking out nine batters in the victory.

Game 2 – Chatham 12, Saint Vincent 5

Similar to the first game, Chatham opened the scoring in the top of the second with a double to left field. Saint Vincent wasted no time in answering as Julian Santana reached on single to bring home Wright from third.

With the bases loaded, Barberich drove a single to center field opening the way for Joe Rudzinski and Santana to score. The Bearcats led 3-1 going into the fourth.

The Cougars recaptured the lead in the fourth scoring four runs on three hits and an error by the Bearcats to take a 5-3. SVC responded as quick as possible as Santana tripled to center as Nate Roebuck crossed home. Santana then tied the game at five, scoring as Jordan Sabol grounded out to the shortstop.

Tied 5-5, Chatham scored in the top of the fifth with a RBI single to center field. Leading 6-5, the Cougars exploded for five runs on five hits in the sixth to take a 11-5 lead. Chatham added another run in the ninth to take game two, 12-5
Santana led the offense going 2-5 from the plate with two runs batted in and scoring twice. Barberich also drove in two runs in the second game.
Malone started on the mound for the Bearcats, giving up eight runs on nine hits in five innings of work in the loss.

Saint Vincent (1-1, 1-1) makes the trip to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for a doubleheader at Chatham University. Game one is set to begin at 1 p.m.