AUBURNDALE, Fla. – The base-running of junior Jose Colon and a sensational season debut for sophomore Pierce Greenleaf fueled the Ursinus College baseball team's 7-2 victory in the opener of Thursday's double-header with Juniata, but Game Two was a different story as the Bears needed four pitchers to get through the first three innings of a 13-3 loss.
Greenleaf was stellar in his first start of 2016, shutting down Juniata (2-8) from the first pitch to the last in tossing the first complete game of his career. Greenleaf (1-0) conceded only two unearned runs, striking out a career-high nine against only one walk. He surrendered just five hits and was one out away from his first shutout when an error allowed the Eagles to break up the clean sheet.
Two days removed from an 11-0 rout of Northland, only a two-run seventh for Juniata denied the Bears their first back-to-back shutouts since 2003, when they kept Washington College off the board in both ends of a doubleheader.
Colon proved a perfect table-setter for Ursinus (6-4), going 2-for-2 with career bests of four runs and four stolen bases, the most swipes by a Bear in a single game since Tommy Herrmann registered four in a victory over Lebanon Valley in 2006.
Ursinus got on the board in the first inning for the third straight game, putting one up in their first at-bat of Game One. Colon was hit by a pitch and swiped two bags before coming around on an infield hit by classmate Jay Farrell, establishing a 1-0 lead just two batters in.
The top of the order struck again for the Bears in the top of the third. Colon singled again and took third on a wild pickoff attempt, and Farrell plated him a second time with a bloop single. Farrell went first to third on a single by senior Christopher Jablonski, and junior Alex Campbell followed three batters later with his second RBI hit in as many outings to stretch the margin out to 3-0.
Colon's base-running continued to vex the Eagles. In the fourth, he walked and advanced all the way to third on an error that brought freshman Carter Usowski to the plate. After a base on balls to Farrell, Jablonski scored Colon with a liner to center.
In the sixth, Colon singled and stole both second and third again, coming around to score on another wild throw by the Juniata catcher. Jablonski was plunked, stole second, and went to third on a wild pitch before junior CJ Diana doubled him home, making it 7-0 Bears.
Farrell finished 2-for-3 with two RBI, and Jablonski was 2-for-3 with two runs scored and an RBI, stretching his hitting streak to 11 games dating back to last season.
Greenleaf did not allow a runner to reach scoring position until the bottom of the seventh. He set down 15 Eagles in a row between the first and sixth innings.
The Eagles came to life in Game Two, tagging freshman Aidan Rogers, sophomore Steve DiStefano, and junior Matt Chipego with 11 runs over the first three innings. Rogers recorded one out in his first collegiate start before DiStefano replaced him with the bags full and two runs already in, and Juniata greeted him with a walk and a bases-clearing double to put up a six-spot. The Eagles added three more on six hits in the second and two additional runs in the third, a rampage interrupted only by junior Avery Perez's RBI triple in the bottom of the second.
Juniata finished with 16 hits, four of them off the bat of Anthony Lombardo. David DeFreest drove in four runs, and Jesse Beeler twirled a complete game on the mound.
A bright spot in the midst of Juniata's Game Two rout, junior Billie Buckwalter was solid in relief in his season debut, limiting the Eagles to three hits and two runs in 3.1 innings; he whiffed three and walked one. Freshman Matt Rapp began his collegiate career by striking out a pair in a scoreless seventh.
The Bears close their Florida trip with a twin bill versus Trine on Friday.