Baseball Sweeps Principia to Open SLIAC Play

ELSAH, IL -- Blackburn College Baseball opened the St. Louis Intercollegiate Athletic Conference season with two wins over Principia College. The Beavers won the first game 10-1 and followed it with a 15-10 victory. 

Senior Andrew Lozano led the way with six hits, six runs batted in while scoring four runs. He also hit a triple and a home run. Senior CJ Brunaugh added four hits with five runs scored and two RBI's. Junior Harley Carney and sophomores Omar Claudio and Dominic Medrano all tallied three hits with two runs. Medrano also notched six RBI's. 

Claudio got the day started when his first inning double scored sophomore Joshua Moreno to make it 1-0. The Beavers added to their lead in the fourth inning. Junior Brett Lander got on through a Panther error and junior Royce Congi walked. Carney followed with a single which scored Lander. Moreno was hit by a pitch to load the bases then Lozano hit a single to right field to score both Congi and Carney. After Lozano stole second, Brunaugh knocked in Moreno with a single and made it 5-0 after five innings. 

In the seventh, Moreno opened the inning with a double and Lozano followed with a triple which scored Moreno, and Lozano then scored on another Brunaugh single. Sophomore Luke Ellinger soon hit a single which allowed Brunaugh to score and gave Blackburn an 8-0 advantage. Principia scored a run in their eighth inning but BC answered with two more in the ninth. After an out to start the inning, Brunaugh singled and stole second then got to third on a Claudio double. Diego Perez knocked in Brunaugh and Claudio scored on an Ellinger single. A shutout bottom of the ninth gave the Beavers the 10-1 victory for their first win of the 2025 campaign. 

Freshman Bailey Kasprowicz threw eight innings throwing six strikeouts and just one run to pick up his first career victory. 

The nightcap saw Blackburn jump out to a 5-0 lead in the second inning. Brunaugh walked to open the inning. A wild pitch got him to second and he got to third when Claudio hit a ball that resulted in a Principia error. Brunaugh scored off Medrano's single. Freshman Pedro Medina was hit by a pitch to load the bases which a Lander batted ball then scored Medrano and Claudio. A wild pitch scored Medina and Lander scored on a sacrifice fly by Congi and the Beavers were up 5-0. 

The team added two more runs in the third. Lozano and Brunaugh both singled and a wild pitch advanced them up a base. Lozano scored on a sacrifice fly by Claudio and Brunaugh scored on a ground out. Lozano added another run after he singled and stole second, and then scored off a Medrano single. 

In the sixth, Carney and Congi singled to get on base. Senior R.J. Arrendondo knocked in Congi with a single then Carney and Arrendondo scored off Lozano's single to give the Beavers the 11-0 lead. Principia would claw back by scoring seven runs in the sixth, a run in the seventh and two more in the eighth which made it 11-10. 

Lozano stopped the Panther run with his first homer of the year. Brunaugh then walked and senior Ian Sullivan singled before Medrano hit his second home run of the season to make it 15-10. Defensively, the Beavers allowed just one hit in the bottom of the inning to capture the win and start the conference season 2-0. 

The Beavers return to action Tuesday when they head to Spalding University for more SLIAC play.