DAVENPORT, Fla. – February 27, 2022 – The Chatham University baseball team opened its 2022 campaign in style, posting a dominant sweep of Finlandia with a 14-5 win in game one and a 19-3 whitewash in game two.
Chatham started the season off strongly, scoring in each of the first five innings in the first official game. In the first inning, first-year
Tyler Cote and senior
Luke Paulson all drove in RBI base hits and junior
Brandon Griener scored on a passed ball to make the score 4-0. Griener later had an RBI single in the second inning, making the score 5-0. The third saw a SAC fly by first-year
Quinn Burke and a passed ball driving in Paulson making the score 7-0.
In the bottom of the third, Finlandia brought in all five of its runs to cut the Chatham lead to 7-5. However, the Cougars bounced back in a big way with a six-spot in the fourth. Senior Corey Miller doubled to score two, sophomore
Frankie DeLuca brought another run in on an RBI single, Burke scored on an E6, and senior
Nico Cuello singled to bring in a run. Chatham got the final run in the fifth on a fielder's choice.
Despite Chatham scoring 14 runs in the first game, it only had nine base hits with two by Griener and DeLuca. The Cougars were aided by nine walks and three Finlandia errors. Senior
Caleb Lehman also drilled the only triple of the game, as two Cougar pitchers combined for seven strikeouts.
The dominant 19-3 win in the second contest marks the most runs the Cougars have ever scored in a single game and the largest margin of victory in the program's history. It all started with huge first and second innings. Chatham jumped out to a quick 5-0 lead after a bases loaded fielder's choice scored the first run, a double by Burke and a bases loaded triple by first-year
Sam Helton put Chatham ahead 5-0.
Finlandia homered in the top of the second to get on the board, but the Cougars responded with 12 runs scored in the bottom of the frame, the most in a single inning in program history. In that inning, there were five doubles that drove in runs smacked by Cote on two separate occasions, first-year
Brady Wingeart, senior
Mason Akers and Lehman. A bases loaded walk, an E5 and a passed ball also contributed to Cougar scores, giving Chatham a mammoth 17-1 lead.
The final Cougar runs came in the fourth and fifth innings. Cote had a SAC fly in the fourth to give Chatham an 18-1 lead. After Finlandia scored on a two-RBI single in the top of the fifth, Wingeart brought home the final run in the bottom of the inning on a triple.
Chatham dominated from start to finish in game two, lacing 16 base hits, including three off the bats of Wingeart and Akers and four RBI's driven in by Wingeart, Cote and Helton. The Cougars were walked nine times and on the mound Chatham struck out 15 Lions.
Chatham retakes the diamond on Wednesday, March 2 for an 11:30 first pitch against Widener.
