Crusaders Rout MUW to Open Series

IRVING, Texas - The University of Dallas baseball team opened their three-game series against MUW with a resounding win on Saturday.  

Dallas 16, MUW 3 (7 Innings)

WP: Dylan Krause (1-0)

LP: R. Canten (1-1)

The Crusaders nearly broke the game wide open in the first inning, but left the bases loaded.  They would only have to wait until the second inning, when they exploded for seven runs on four hits. Meanwhile, Dylan Krause was in the midst of a dominant performance on the mound, fanning six batters in four innings of shutout baseball. 

Dallas capitalized on a painful miscue by MUW to have a monstrous fourth inning. The Owls' first baseman dropped an easy pop-up in foul territory that would have retired Austin Birkhoff and set the Crusaders down in order.  Instead, Birkhoff doubled to spark a two-out rally that resulted in Dallas piling on nine runs on eight hits.

After RBI singles by Paxton Huff, Jake Amoroso, Brett Castillo, and Noah Sharar, the inning was punctuated by back-to-back two-RBI doubles by Andrew Gaspar and Birkhoff.

The Owls picked up three consolation runs in the fifth, but that would be all the scoring they could muster as the Crusaders ended the game early via mercy rule.

Birkhoff was 4-for-4 with two doubles and three RBI.  Amoroso was 3-for-5 with two RBI, and Huff and Tyler Darnell were both 2-for-3 with 1 RBI each.  

The Crusaders racked up nine stolen bases in the game; Amoroso and Birkhoff each had two, and Darnell led the pack with three.  George Clahane and Collin Johnson combined to throw 2.2 innings in relief, allowing just one hit and no earned runs between the two of them.

The series will conclude tommorrow (March 5) with a pair of games.  First pitch is scheduled for 11:00 a.m., with the series finale scheduled to be a seven inning game.