FULTON, MO - The Principia Baseball team traveled to central Missouri to take on the Westminster Blue Jays as the Panthers opened up conference play.
Chris Strong received the nod for game one which was played at Battle High School in Columbia due to field conditions on a windy Friday evening. The Blue Jays struck first in the bottom of the first, scoring one run on a pair of hits. The Panthers would even things up in the top of the second as Owen Murphy singled through the right side scoring Casey Golbiw, who walked to lead off the inning.
Westminster would take a 3-1 lead in the bottom of the second. In the top of the third, the Panthers would strike again, capitalizing on a defensive miscue. Alejandro Zozaya led things off with a single, and Jack Adler and Tim Eissler both drew walks to load the bases. Golbiw would put the ball in play scoring two runs, and Ryan D'Amico would ground out to shortstop plating the third run of the inning to give the Panthers a 4-3 lead.
The Blue Jay bats regained the lead in the bottom of the third with three runs of their own and would not look back. Gavin Brustman entered to pitch in the bottom of the fourth and picked up two outs to finish the inning. He threw two more innings and held the Blue Jays bats scoreless in the bottom of the sixth.
Saturday brought sunshine, but the cold and wind stuck around. Salvador Flores started game two and went the distance throwing six innings. Principia spread their hits out with six different Panthers each tallying a hit. The lone Panther run would come in the top of the fifth as Murphy led off with a double, stole third, and scored on a Zozaya single.
The highlight of game three was an 0-2 blast by Flores, who picked up his first collegiate career homerun. The Panthers only other hit of the game came off the bat of Eissler.
Up Next: The Panthers will look to rebound from their winless start to conference play next Saturday at Fontbonne with a doubleheader starting at 12 pm.
