Parkside baseball had a tough opening day in Springfield, Mo., on Saturday. The Rangers opened the 2020 campaign with a doubleheader against Drury, but fell in both games.
 
GAME 1: Drury 9, Parkside 1
Senior Aaron Cusimano got the ball in game one, and started the day on the right foot with a pair of scoreless innings. The first runs of the day came in the third inning on a Drury RBI-single. The Panthers continued their scoring ways in the following innings, and added three runs in both the fourth and fifth innings to bring the score to 7-0. Parkside scored their lone run in the top of the sixth after loading the bases and scoring on a passed ball. Redshirt-junior Jake Macaluso pitched the last three innings for the Rangers, and retired nine hitters while giving up four hits and an unearned run.
 
Offensively, the Rangers were led by junior Garrett LaBreche, who went 1-for-3 with a walk. Other Rangers with hits were junior Hunter Weddel (1-for-4), graduate student Casey Oliver (1-for-4), and junior Carlos Arteaga (1-for-4), who had the lone extra base hit for the visitors.
 
GAME 2: Drury 14, Parkside 6
The Green & White were able to jump out to an early lead in the second inning on a sac-fly from freshman Bryce Brogni that scored Arteaga. That 1-0 Parkside lead didn't last long as the Panthers responded in the bottom half of the inning with two runs off of starting pitcher Matt Helwig. Drury tacked on another run in each of the next two innings, and had a 4-1 lead going into the fifth inning.
 
Brogni provided another spark for Parkside in the top of the fifth, and helped the Rangers chip into the Panther lead with an RBI-triple, followed by a fielder's choice that scored him in the next at-bat. With a 4-3 lead, Drury came back in the bottom half with a five-hit, four-run inning that put the game out of reach.
 
The five and six spots in the Parkside order provided a large part of the Ranger offense. Graduate student Austin Emanuel (2-for-5) and sophomore Noah Tyrrell (3-for-4) were accountable for five of the team's eight hits, and three of the teams six runs. Brogni went 1-for-1 and had two RBIs in the game. Arteaga was also a bright spot for the team, drawing three walks in the contest.
 
WHAT'S NEXT
Parkside will close out opening weekend with a third game against Drury on Sunday, March 1 at 1 p.m. Next weekend they'll head to Upper Iowa for a four-game series from March 6-8.