PENSACOLA, Fla - Carroll Baseball opened their spring break campaign at the Studer's Blue Wahoo Challenge with a tough test, falling to #1-ranked UW-Whitewater by a score of 10-6. Carroll held a 6-2 advantage before the Warhawks scored three in the seventh and five runs in the eighth to steal the victory from the upset-hungry Pios. 

Carroll (7-4) matched the Warhawks at the plate with 11 hits and had doubles off the bats of Joey Appino and Eddie Synek. UW-Whitewater (5-0) saw most of their production at the plate come from the 4-through-8 hitters, who combined for seven of the team's 11 hits. 

Whitewater was the first team to the fight, scoring two runs in the bottom of the second for the early lead. The Pios immediately responded in the next half inning with Appino and Andres Gonzalez scoring on a wild pitch combined with a throwing error to knot the game at two runs apiece. Carroll scored four more unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings, highlighted by back-to-back RBI singles by Appino and Dalen Lamberson in the sixth inning, while the defense held, causing six Warhawk runners to remain stranded and the scoreboard to show zeros in four consecutive innings. The Warhawks dug their heels in and began to fight back, scoring three runs in the seventh and five in the eighth behind eight hits to regain the lead 10-6. That score would hold in the ninth, as Carroll's upset hopes were extinguished. 

Connnor Nolen suffered his first loss of the season, pitching .2 relief innings and striking out one batter while seceding four earned runs on five hits in the pivotal eighth inning. Four other Pioneer pitchers took the mound, including starter Braden Lewis, Isaac Verbruggen, Ben Olsen, and Tyler Burns. The battery combined for six runs on six hits and five strikeouts. 

Carroll will continue the Studer's Blue Wahoo Challenge with a quick turnaround, facing Edgewood in a doubleheader tomorrow, Thursday, March 13, with game one beginning at 3pm (CT).