Jackson, Miss. - The Marian baseball team picked up their first win of the season Saturday afternoon, taking down Tougaloo College 5-1 in their series opener. Marian led 6-3 going into the third inning before rain spoiled the day, leaving the Knights with a 1-2 overall record following their third game of the season.
The Knights wasted little time getting on the board, striking in the first inning as Kameron Salazar drew a lead-off walk and picked up a second base on a steal after Rylan Huntley delivered a single. JJ Rivera capped the inning with Marian's first run, driving an RBI single to right field to provide the 1-0 start. The lead doubled in the third with Salazar reaching on a bunt single, with small ball from Trey Heidlage and Huntley moving the sophomore into scoring position, who took home on an error in the outfield.
Rivera's second run driven in put Marian in good position behind the right arm of Craig Nixon, who shined early with two perfect innings, keeping the ball in the infield for his first six outs. In the third Nixon lost a touch of his control hitting and walking a batter, but kept his composure as he picked up a strikeout en route to stranding a runner on base.
The first fireworks of the season went off in the fourth inning as Caden Jones led the inning with a walk, setting up Dion Wintjes who crushed a two-run home run to right field on a 2-1 count to soar the lead to 4-0. The added runs aided Nixon, who struckout two batters in the fourth and two in the fifth, losing his no-hit bid in the home half of the fifth with a two-out single. An RBI single from Jones in the top of the fifth scored Marian's final run of the game, and in the sixth stellar defense kept runs off the board as Nixon stranded a runner in scoring position with a frame-closing 4-6-3 double play.
Nixon lost touch of his best material in the seventh with a walk and then an errant throw in the field aiding a runner to move to third. An RBI groundout for the Bulldogs would score their lone run of the game, and with one out to get Taylor Soper came on out of the bullpen to get the final out, needing two pitches to strand a runner and close the 5-1 victory.
Marian out-hit Tougaloo 13-2 in the series opener, with Nixon yielding just two hits in his first start of the season. The senior righty tossed 99 pitches in the win, going 6.2 innings while striking out seven hitters as one unearned run crossed the plate under his watch.
Salazar, Rivera, Huntley, and Wintjes each notching a pair of base hits. Wintjes had Marian's only extra base hit of the contest with his homerun, and the Knights were swift on the base path swiping three bases.
Marian led 6-3 in their second game of the series going into the third inning, with a three-triple second inning providing a lift to the offense behind starter Chris Adams. The game was suspended with rain washing out the action, and will resume play tomorrow at 12 p.m., with the contest shifting to a nine-inning game. The series will drop one game, and following the nine-inning outing the series will finish with a seven inning affair.
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