COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College baseball team found itself buried beneath a Muhlenberg deluge in Centennial Conference action Wednesday, as the visiting Mules pounded out 21 hits en route to a 14-4 victory.
All nine starters recorded at least one hit for Muhlenberg (10-11, 1-0), which got four hits or more from three different players in snapping a three-game skid in Collegeville. Robbie Hopes went 5-for-6 with a double and four RBI, while Eric Reitmeyer (4-for-5, three runs) and Chris Grillo (4-for-6, two runs, two RBI) registered four hits apiece for the Mules, who broke it open with a six-run third.
Sophomore Travis Kozak had two hits for Ursinus (15-9, 1-2), and juniors Jay Farrell and Alex Campbell each collected an RBI single.
Campbell's two-out looper to center staked the Bears to a first-inning lead, but it was all Muhlenberg from there. The Mules tied it in the second before pulling away for good an inning later, scoring six runs on six hits. John Icaza's two-run single started the Muhlenberg barrage, and Hopes extended it with a two-run double to the gap in left center.
The Mules tacked on two more in the frame, then put the Bears away with three in the fifth, a rally capped by Grillo's two-run double to center.
Ursinus scored three in the seventh, with junior Kieran Geyer drawing a bases-loaded walk before senior Chris Jablonski's sacrifice fly and Farrell's liner back up the box. But Muhlenberg responded with two in the eighth and two in the ninth to leave no doubt.
Jablonski was 1-for-3 with a run scored and his ninth stolen base of the season, and Kozak scored in the seventh inning.
The Bears used eight different pitchers; junior Billie Buckwalter tossed a scoreless seventh, and classmate Connor McCarthy did not allow a run in 1.1 innings of relief.
Timmy Pilrun (3-1) worked six innings to pick up the win, striking out eight against three walks and allowing just four hits.
The Bears will look to even the score with the Mules when they head north to Allentown for a single game on Friday, April 8.