HOUSTON, TEXAS – The Millersville Marauders did not shy away from opening their season on the big stage at the Houston Winter Invitational at Minute Maid Park, using a five-run first inning to take the lead and eventually defeat the Arkansas Tech Wonder Boys 7-2.

Senior Manning Brookens capped off a first-inning rally with a three-run blast over the right field fence to break a 2-2 tie. The comeback had begun earlier in the first after Luke Trainer singled up the middle to drive in Eric Callahan, scoring the Ville's first run of the season. Jimmy Cain drew a walk then sophomore Jimmy Losh drove a ball to right field to bring home Trainer and tie the game at two.
 
The next batter, Brookens, took the 1-1 pitch and crushed it deep to right, depositing it over the fence for his third career home run and Millersville's first of the season.
 
The Marauders' early offensive exploits allowed opening game starter Drew Miller to settle down after surrendering two runs in the top of the first. Miller pitched three additional scoreless innings, striking out four, and was relieved by Gavilan Fogarty-Harnish to begin the fifth inning. Fogarty-Harnish tossed three more innings of shutout baseball, facing 14 batters and striking out two.
 
Andrew Mayhew came into the game and shut down the Wonder Boys in the eighth inning. Paul Wilson took the mound for the ninth inning and needed just seven pitches to retire the side and secure the Millersville victory.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS
• Freshman Bren Taylor earned a season-opening start in right field and scored two runs in the game. Taylor stroked a double to the gap in left center to reach base in the fourth inning and advanced to third after an Eric Callahan groundout. Taylor scooted home on a passed ball to give the Ville a 6-2 lead. He drew a two-out walk in the eighth inning, took off on a steal attempt, and scored from first base after Callahan singled to center to make it a 7-2 game.
 
• Cole Friese made a tremendous throw from centerfield to end the eighth inning. Friese tracked down a long fly ball and make a perfect throw to Jimmy Cain at first base to gun down Arkansas Tech's Josh Detweiler, who had advanced too far along the base path to second.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Jimmy Losh was the only Marauder to finish with multiple hits (two.) He also scored a run and notched a RBI.
• Jimmy Cain walked twice and swiped second base to earn his ninth career stolen base as well as tying his entire season total (one) from 2019.
• Leadoff batter Eric Callahan and three-hole hitter Luke Trainer both finished the game with one run scored, one hit, one walk, and one RBI.
• Freshman Darin Miller started the game at third base and drew two walks. Sophomore Corey Woodcock entered the game in the seventh inning and singled to collect his first collegiate hit.
• Starter Drew Miller and Gavilan Fogarty-Harnish both surrendered two walks and three hits to Wonder Boy Batters.
• Marauders batters drew eight total walks in the game.
 
POST-GAME REACTION FROM HEAD COACH JON SHEHAN
• On opening the season at Minute Maid Park: "The park is beautiful. It is as advertised down to the batting cages and the video room. Just checking out the facilities is fantastic. It's a true big league experience. It might be the closest some of these guys ever get to that experience so just living out childhood dreams is an awesome thing and we really appreciate Central Missouri for inviting us."
 
• On coming back from 2-0 down: "Having a veteran presence on the field like Drew Miller that's been down in a game is so important. Having him on the mound, we know we're going to get a better outing than what he showed in the first inning. Then a guy like Manning, a senior, he's been there and done that. He put a big swing on the ball and that moment was huge for the momentum of the game."
 
• On the performances of the three freshmen that saw game time today: "Darin Miller had a couple good at-bats. Bren did a great job getting his first hit, a double in the gap, did a great job running the bases as well. Woodcock had his first knock as well and showed off his speed. It was a lot of fun to watch those guys break in at a great place."
 
• On takeaways from today's win: "Hopefully we have that resiliency the rest of the year; the ability to go down early and answer right back. The ability to take a punch and counter. It was nice to see the veterans on the mound and the bullpen do a nice job. Fogarty-Harnish came in and threw up zeroes. Mayhew is another guy who has been in that situation before and did well, then Paul Wilson comes in. He throws strikes and he did just that."
 
NOTES
• Today's Millersville win snaps a two-game losing streak of season-openers that dated back to 2018. The Marauders are now 6-4 in the last ten season-opening games.
• The Marauders pitching staff combined for eight scoreless innings after Arkansas Tech scored two in the first inning.
• The other results of Friday's games at this year's Houston Winter Invitational: Flagler defeated Central Missouri 4-2 and the Colorado School of Mines defeated Arkansas-Monticello 2-0.
 
UP NEXT
• The Marauders play Central Missouri on Saturday, Feb. 1 at 2:30 p.m. EST and finish the tournament with a game against Arkansas-Monticello on Sunday, Feb. 2 at 6 p.m. EST.