The No. 15 University of Redlands baseball program opened up the 101st season of play on Friday with a convincing 13-3 victory over the visiting Austin College (TX) Kangaroos. For the second straight season, Redlands posted 13 or more runs in its season opener, which came on 11 hits and 13 RBI in today's contest.
The Maroon and Gray took an early lead by pushing a run across in both the second and third frames. Austin responded in the top of the fourth with its first run, but the Bulldogs answered with two of their own in the bottom of the inning. Both squads crossed the plate once in the fifth before the U of R exploded with an eight-run sixth to put the game away for good.
Senior third baseman Jason Henning (Redlands, CA) and sophomore center fielder Alex Scheiwe (Encinitas, CA) led the hitting spree, each providing a three-hit performance. Henning, the program's single-season record-holder for doubles, notched his first of 2012 while chipping in two RBI and two runs in the process. The speedy outfielder, Scheiwe, went a perfect 3-for-3 at the plate, scoring in each of his at-bats.
D3baseball.com Preseason All-American senior shortstop Chase Tucker (Poway, CA) tallied a team-high three RBI on a monster bases-loaded triple to deep center in the Bulldogs' big sixth inning.
In all, seven different Bulldog swingers collected a base knock in the contest.
Redlands' new ace, junior Kyle Hart (Burbank, CA), picked up the win after going six innings with eight hits, two earned runs, and three strikeouts.
UR's reliving core tossed three scoreless innings with junior Mike Massari (Palmdale, CA), senior Trenton Lively (La Verne, CA) and senior Brock Jacobo (Yuma, AZ) wrapping up the ball game with just one hit over the span.
Redlands (1-0) picks up play once again tomorrow as the team squares off against the No. 2 team in the country and regional competitor, Chapman University, at 1 p.m. at The Yard.
