The Dominican University baseball team opened the 2020 campaign on Saturday in Sewanee, Tennessee, dropping both ends of a doubleheader to the Sewanee Tigers.  Despite leading 2-1 late in game one, the Stars fell 3-2 in ten innings before coming up short, 6-3, in a seven-inning affair.  The Stars and Tigers will close out the three-game set on Sunday. First pitch in the series finale is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.
 
"Game one had the feelings of a conference game," commented Steve Hardman, the Stars' head baseball coach now in his ninth season. "It was a back and forth battle.  We got a great outing from Bryant Bagshaw and solid innings out of the pen from Tyler Kara. Those are the types of games we need to be in early to prepare us for conference play.  In game two, we started exactly how we needed to after dropping the first, taking an early three-run lead. Unfortunately, we went from building momentum and a lead to squandering scoring opportunities and wasting at-bats.  That led to us losing the lead and eventually led to the loss.  The goal now is to get one tomorrow and avoid the sweep."
 
Game One: Sewanee 3, Dominican 2 (10 Innings)
 
Johnny Condron jumpstarted the Stars' offense with a long-ball to right on the sophomore's first at-bat of the season, second hitter of the year for the Stars, giving Dominican an early 1-0 lead.
 
Bagshaw did his best to try to make the early run enough, holding the host Tigers scoreless into the fifth inning.  After back-to-back walks to start the bottom of the fifth, the Tigers pushed across their first run of the series on a wild pitch after Bagshaw nearly escaped the inning with back-to-back pop outs.
 
The Stars stole that run back in the top of the sixth when Keegan Brandt legged out an infield single.  After a sacrifice bunt and a ground out, the freshman scored on a wild pitch, reclaiming the lead for the Stars, 2-1, after the top of the sixth.
 
After Bagshaw worked around a two-out walk and a single in the bottom of the sixth, the second-year starter gave way to Kara for a 1-2-3 seventh.
 
Dominican stranded a runner in scoring position in the top of the eighth before the Tigers stole a run in the bottom of the inning with one out and runners and first and third.
 
The game stayed knotted at 2-2 until a two-out single to left-center plated the game's winning run in the bottom of the tenth.
 
Kara was tagged with the loss, allowing two runs on four hits over 3.2 innings out of the bullpen.  In his 2020 debut, Bagshaw lasted six innings, striking out six and walking five.
 
As a team, the Stars managed four hits, one apiece for Condron, Brandt, Frankie Sessa and Mike Buckley.
 
Game Two: Sewanee 6, Dominican 3
 
The Stars staked sophomore right-hander Hayden Young to a 3-0 lead before the California native had to take to the mound.  Ryan Simak started the ballgame with a single to right-center and later scored on a bases loaded single by Tyler Trojan.  After a sacrifice fly scored Sessa, Buckley came across on a throwing error as the Stars scratched across three in the top of the first.
 
The Tigers got one run back in the bottom of the first and then evened the score with a pair of runs off Young in the bottom of the third.  After a sac fly gave Sewanee a 4-3 lead after four, the Tigers chased Young from the game in the fifth with an RBI double that later came across to score as Young was tagged for six runs in four-plus innings of work in his first loss of the season.
 
Dominican's offense managed six hits, including doubles by Condron and Nick Roeper, in the loss but stranded eight runners in the seven-inning contest.