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The #18 ranked UAM Boll Weevils returned home from the Houston Invitation for their first home series of the season on a historical day in UAM baseball history on Saturday, February 8.
Hosting Missouri Western University from the Mid-American Intercollegiate Athletic Association conference in a double-header on Saturday followed by the final game in the series on Sunday, the Weevils would play game one with Connor Irvine getting to call as the home opener starter.
After getting the first out of the inning, Missouri would get the first base runner on a double followed by the next batter getting hit by a pitch but the Weevils would get out of the inning after turning a double play.
The Weevils would get on the board in the bottom of the first after Roc Hawthorne led off with a single and then stole second followed by a single by Camden Tanner which advanced Hawthorne to third.
Tanner and Hawthorne would each get steals with Tanner advancing to second and Hawthorne stealing home.
Kirk Woolf would be hit by a pitch followed by a double by Chaz Poppy that would score Tanner and Woolf to give the Weevils a 3-0 lead.
Missouri Western would get on the board in the top of the fourth on a solo homerun to cut the lead to 3-1 and would add a second run in the top of the fifth to cut it to 3-2.
UAM would add a run in the bottom of the sixth after Chaz Poppy scored on a Chase Cripps triple for a 4-2 lead.
UAM added the final run of the contest in the bottom of the seventh after an RBI groundout by Camden Tanner that scored Aiden Garrett for the 5-2 win.
Irvine would improve to 2-0 on the season pitching six innings allowing five hits, two earned runs, and seven strikeouts.
Lane Imhoff would come in for middle relief for two innings striking out two with Nelson Mercado picking up his second save of the season striking out three in one inning.
In Between games on Saturday, a special dedication took place before the 5 pm scheduled pitch.
Coming to the field were board members of Union Bank along with Union Bank President Dave Dickson, Scott Saffols, UAM Chancellor Peggy Doss, UAM Athletic Director Hud Jackson, and UAM Head Baseball Coach John Harvey and athletic staff members to conduct a dedication ceremony for the unveiling of the new lights that were installed at Weevils Field at Union Bank Park that was made possible from a generous donation from Union Bank and the Legacy Campaign that was developed for enhancing the support of student athletes through major facility improvements.
After finishing the Kenneth H. Hunt Athletic Performance Center, UAM turned to one of the next projects, improving lights at Convoy Leslie Cotton Bowl Stadium as well as adding lights to Weevil Field and Alvy Early Softball Field.
Union Bank would give a 75,000 dollar donation to the Legacy Campaign to help support adding the LED lights.
After giving the order to “Light it Up” the Weevils took to the field for the first time in school history under the lights for the first night game at UAM.
Maxim Mrakovcic would get the start under the lights pitching four innings to pick up the win with Camden Tanner getting his first homerun of the season in the Weevils 4-3 win.
UAM would get two runs in the first, one in the third, and one in the fourth with Missouri Western getting runs in innings one, two, and five.
Returning on SUnday, the Weevils would complete the series sweep with a 14-5 win.
The Weevils would give up five runs in the top of the first but would add four runs in the bottom of the first and second and would add runs in the fifth, sixth, two runs in the seventh and eighth.
Aiden Garrett would get his first homerun of the season with Bryce Louis picking up his first win of the season.
The Weevils will begin GAC play on Friday with a 6 pm pitch against Southern Nazarene with the series to be completed on Saturday, February 15, with a double-header beginning with a 1 pm start for game one.
