TUCSON, Ariz. - Marian University baseball squad (3-2, 0-0 NACC) avenged a 15-0 loss to Hamline yesterday with an 11-10 win over the Pipers before defeating Whitman 6-5 to finish a protested game.

"Hamline is a good squad in a well respected conference and they really took it to us yesterday so it was good to bounce back today," said head coach Jason Bartelt following the game.  "Two freshman really won that game for us in [Brady] Nehring and [Ty] Peccioli so that was good to see early in the season."

The Pipers opened the game fast with three runs to start the top of the first but a Tommy Dugandzic RBI double and an Adam Ryan RBI single in the bottom half of the inning kept the Sabres close at 3-2.  The Pipers would add another pair of runs in the second inning before Marian exploded for six runs in the bottom of the fourth.

The Sabres would bat around in the inning scoring six runs on six hits with Schuyler Rath, Tyler Thompson, Earl Vorpagel, Dugandzic, Tony Grannis and Ryan all earning runs batted in, respectively.  The big inning gave Marian their first lead of the game at 8-5.

"We've really had a tough time finishing innings and our situational hitting hasn't been the best," commented Bartelt on the strong offensive outburst.  "Today we were able to finally do that, and Dustin Hodgson had a great bunt to really spark us to load the bases and the rest took off from there."

Hamline was able to cut into the deficit in the top of the sixth, but the Sabres answered with another crooked number in the bottom half of the inning.  Grannis and Ryan each doubled in the inning as the Sabres extended the lead out to 11-6.

In the top of the eighth the Pipers would make things interesting with four unearned runs before Vorpagel came in for the ninth and had a 1-2-3 inning to shut the door on the 11-10 final.

Brady Nehring started on the bump for the Sabres going 3.1 innings before giving way to fellow freshman Ty Peccioli who earned the win.  Peccioli provided 4.1 innings of relief work only allowing four hits and one earned run.

Dugandzic and Ryan each had multi-hit games in the win with Dugandzic going 4-4 with two runs, a walk, and two runs batted in, while Ryan went 3-5 with three RBIs.

The Sabres then finished the day in an interesting way as they restarted the game against Whitman in the top of the 9th with a 5-5 tie after a successful Whitman protest from the day before.

The protest would have no effect on the result of the game as Austin Hansen shut down Whitman in the top of the ninth with a 1-2-3 inning, eventually earning the win, before Hunter Berry drove in Ryan only two batters into the bottom of the ninth to walk it off.

"We kind of made history today," commented Bartelt following the restart of the Whitman game.  "It was a unique situation coming in not knowing what was going to happen, but it was basically a sudden death match up just trying to go one inning at a time."

Marian returns to action tomorrow, Monday, March 7, taking on Wheaton at 4 p.m. (CST) in Kino Veterans Memorial Stadium.

--FightBlueFight--