MURFREESBORO, N.C. – For the second straight day, the Kutztown University baseball team won the opening game of its doubleheader with Chowan University, taking game one 7-5 before falling 5-2 in the second game Sunday afternoon to wrap up the opening weekend of the 2020 season in Murfreesboro, N.C.
 
The Golden Bears are now 2-2 overall and have two weeks off before their next competition.
 
Kutztown will next compete on Saturday, Feb. 29, at Ohio Dominican for two games beginning at 1 p.m., followed by a game on Sunday, March 1, at noon.
 
Kutztown 7, Chowan 5
 
Backed by five doubles and five strong innings from redshirt freshman pitcher Matt Ziminsky (Whitehall, Pa./Whitehall), the Golden Bears opened a 7-1 lead through six innings and hung on for a 7-5 victory after a wild rally from the hosts in the bottom of the seventh.
 
Kutztown (2-1) erupted for four runs on three hits in its first at-bats. A one-out walk from Jake Augustus (Fogelsville, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh) set the stage for Collin Bishop's (Laurel Springs, N.J./Highland Regional) RBI double to left center that put the visitors in front, 1-0. Zach Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) also worked a walk before freshman Antonio Rossillo (Warrington, Pa./Archbishop Wood) laced another gapper to left that doubled KU's lead.
 
Fellow freshman Gavin Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) made it 4-0 with a two-run single that plated brother, Zach, and Rossillo.
 
Staked to a solid cushion early, Ziminsky, a Lehigh Valley native and former Monmouth recruit, went to work in his Kutztown debut. The Whitehall grad struck out a pair of Chowan hitters in the first, second and fourth innings. He retired the final eight hitters he faced in order from the bottom of the third on.
 
Meanwhile, the Golden Bears added to their lead. Brandon Heere (Reading, Pa./Muhlenberg) led off the second with a double to left and later came around to make it 5-0 on Bishop's sacrifice fly. A Gavin Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) double down the right field line –KU's fourth two-bagger of the afternoon—drove in Rossillo for a 6-1 lead in the third.
 
Ziminsky yielded just four hits and an unearned run while striking out seven over five frames. He was efficient, throwing just 84 pitches.
 
Bishop's second double of the day increased Kutztown's lead to 7-1 in the top of the sixth, but the Hawks staged a four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh to put the result in question before freshman Trevor Leverington (Kutztown, Pa./Kutztown) got Patrick Krack to fly out to end it. Chowan (4-6) registered six hits, including a two-run homer from Travis Cross, and had the tying run in scoring position when the final out was recorded.
 
Bishop and Gavin Moretski (Harleysville, Pa./La Salle College H.S.) each finished with two hits and three runs batted in, while Rossillo was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and an RBI. Heere also scored twice.
 
Chowan 5, Kutztown 2
 
KU got onto the scoreboard first with a two-run top of the third inning as it looked to take three-of-four from the Hawks. Following a walk to Mitch Pinder (Gilbertsville, Pa./Boyertown), Augustus singled through the left side to put runners on first and third with nobody out. Augustus proceeded to steal second two pitches later and then Bishop brought both runners home on a base hit up the middle to put KU up 2-0.
 
Chowan got onto the scoreboard in the bottom-half of the inning thanks to a throwing error by KU and the score would remain 2-1 until the fifth inning.
 
In the bottom of the fifth, Chowan brought its first eight batters to the plate and put up a four-run inning that put away the game.