The Emory baseball team should be pleased with their 2-0 start to the 2013 season.

This weekend, the Eagles traveled north to Rhodes College (Tenn.), where they played back-to-back games against the Lynx on Saturday and Sunday and secured their first two victories of the season.

Sophomore right-handed starting pitcher Connor Dillman, and sophomore right-handed reliever Graham Bloomsmith both had dominant performances on the mound for the Eagles in their opening game on Saturday.

Dillman pitched six and a third innings, allowing only two runs. Bloomsmith gave up just one run in two and two third innings to record his first college victory.

“The pitchers did great,” Head Coach Mike Twardoski said. “[Allowing just] one earned run in 18 innings.”

In the second game, the Eagles had another strong performance from their starting pitcher as freshman right-handed pitcher Tyler Sprague threw seven shutout innings in his college debut.

Sprague earned the 5-0 win for the first victory of his college career.

Junior Matt McMahon took over on the mound in the seventh inning and pitched two scoreless innings to secure the victory.

On the other side of the game, the Eagles offense also performed well in both games.

In Saturday’s game, the Eagles scored eight runs, hit four doubles and stole three bases.

“They ran the bases very well,” Twardoski said.

Between the two games, junior right fielder and co-captain Brandon Hannon went five for 10 at the plate, with one RBI and two runs scored.

“We hit the ball well, pretty much across the board,” Hannon said.

His fellow co-captain junior outfielder Daniel Iturrey went three for five at the plate in Sunday’s game with an RBI, two runs scored, and a pair of doubles.

In Saturday and Sunday’s games, the Eagles offense finished with a combined batting average of .304, compared to their opponents who have batted just .172 in that stretch.

While the Eagles managed to win both of their opening games over the weekend, Twardoski sees that there is still room for improvement but is satisfied with how his team performed.

“They didn’t play as well as they possibly could have, but they played well enough to beat a good team on their own field,” Twardoksi said.

Still, despite the errors, the Eagles managed to pull out two wins to open their season.

The team is also returning this year without many of their key players who graduated last year, but with a strong group of young underclassmen players who are expected to make a strong impact immediately.

Off the field, the Eagles have also been producing in the form of filmmaking. Their entry in the recent YouTube phenomenon of Harlem Shake videos has almost 100,000 views in the last week.

In the upcoming week, Emory will play five games: against Washington & Lee University (Va.) today at 2 p.m. home at Cooper Field, Wednesday at Oglethorpe University, Friday and Sunday against Bates College (Maine) at home, and Tuesday at Maryville College (Tenn.).

These early nonconference games will go a long way to preparing the Eagles for their University Athletic Association (UAA) slate, which starts on March 10th.

By Jake Max

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The Emory Wheel was founded in 1919 and is currently the only independent, student-run newspaper of Emory University. The Wheel publishes weekly on Wednesdays during the academic year, except during University holidays and scheduled publication intermissions.

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