CLEVELAND, Ohio – The Brandeis University baseball team took a 3-2 lead in the top of the fourth inning, but host Case Western Reserve hit back-to-back home runs in the bottom of the frame giving the Spartans a 5-3 lead. The pitchers took over in the final five innings as the Spartans hung on for the University Athletic Association win in the four-game series opener.

TEAM RECORDS

• Brandeis: 4-14, 0-1 UAA.
• CWRU: 18-6, 4-1 UAA.

HOW IT HAPPENED

• Case Western Reserve opened the scoring in the bottom of the second. The Spartans loaded the bases when Brandeis grad student starter Marc Maestri (Katonah, N.Y./Somers) experienced some wildness, allowing two walks after a lead-off double. Maestri got the first two outs of the inning, but hit Spartan James Powers with the bases loaded to put the hosts ahead. Maestri got the final out on a called third strike to limit the damage.
• Brandeis answered in the top of the third. First-year LF Henry Aronwald (Rye Brook, N.Y./Trinity Pawling) led off with a walk. He moved to second on a single by classmate CF Connor Crowley (Guilford, Conn./Notre Dame-West Haven) and scored on a two-out hit up the middle by grad student RF Jake Freed (Vernon Hills, Ill./Stevenson). The inning ended when Crowley was caught between second and third.
• The hosts went back on top, 2-1, in their half of the third thanks to an RBI single by Matt Trout.
• The Judges took their first lead of the game in the top of the fourth. Grad student 3B Brian King (Palos Verde, Calif./Palos Verde) led off with a walk, followed by a single to the hole at short by grad student 1B Eddie Zanor (Branford, Conn./Notre Dame-West Haven). Both runners moved up on a ground out to second. First-year 2B Dylan Walsh (Arlington, Mass./Arlington) drove in the tying run with a single through the right side of a pulled-in infield, while classmate SS Matt Chafin (Canton, Mass./Canton) put Brandeis on top, 3-2, with a hot shot off the pitcher.
•  The pivotal inning for CWRU was the bottom of the fourth, when RF Nick Harms homered to right with one out and one on, giving the Spartans a 4-3 lead. 1B Dane Camphausen followed with a blast to center to make it 5-3.
• The pitchers took over from there, with only two innings seeing a runner advance past first base. Maestri stranded two runners on base in the fifth, while first-year Jansen Landen (Swampscott, Mass./Austin Prep) induced a double play to help avoid trouble when he issued three walks and infield single in the eighth.
• The Judges got base-runners in each of the final five frames thanks to three walks, a hit batter and a single by Chafin, but CWRU's Reece Marley kept the visitors in check.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE

• Maestri last six innings in his third start in a row and for the fourth time in his last five, but he took the loss to fall to 2-4 on the season. He allowed 10 hits and five earned runs, walking five and striking out three.
• Marley moved to 4-2 on the season with the Spartans' first nine-inning complete game since 2021. He allowed six hits and three earned runs. He worked around six walks by striking out 10.
• Offensively, Brandeis was paced by Chafin, who went 2-4 with an RBI. CWRU saw DH Zack Carinci had a game-high three hits, while Camphausen and 2B Franco Alonso both had two hits for the Spartans.
• Harms had the only multi-RBI game thanks to his two-run home run.

UP NEXT

• The Judges and Spartans will meet for a pair of nine-inning games tomorrow starting at 12 noon.