Our Pioneers took on Westminster in the home opener of the 2023 season! Our Pioneer Baseball team hasn't been able to play at home in a couple of seasons and with Wild Health Field as the new home for the Pios this weekend couldn't have gone better. Lexington faced severe weather Friday night knocking the power out for our facilities here, which hindered our ability to produce the event regularly. However the aftermath of the storm left Saturday with perfect baseball weather. 

This was a double header for the Pioneers as the visiting Westminster was up against a highly motivated Transy. Transy strike's first in the bottom of the 1st with Shubert sent home by Sophomore Austin Taylor's RBI. From here on fantastic fielding as well as Connor Arnold holding Westminster scoreless throughout his 7 pitched innings and 27 faced batters. This type of defense is a growing trend for Transylvania as they have made strides in this category. Westminster didn't get on the board until the 9th inning scoring 2 themselves, however out closer Matt Armstrong battled adversity well and punched a win for the first game. This game ended in the Pios favor 3-2

The second game of this double header was exciting from start to finish with this game going into extra innings. Westminster attacked early, getting 1 run in both the first and second inning, then 2 in the 3rd. Transylvania was then able to earn 2 of their own in the second inning followed by 3 runs in both the 3rd inning and 4th inning. From here on the Pioneers were able to tack on 2 more runs until Westminster roared back with 5 runs in the 8th inning. This put the game into a pinch as they needed smart base running to win this game. Luckily Transylvania, combined with superb pitching in the end was able to save the win, ending the game with a high score of 12-11 for the Pios. 

After the game, head coach Zack Getsee had this to say:

"I'm really glad we played two tight baseball games. Sometimes, at the start of a season you need to learn to win. It wasn't our most crisp effort today in game 2. But, hopefully, we can take the lessons we learned in two wins."

This weekend was full of fantastic baseball for the Pioneers and while sweeping on the day, they were also able to find confidence in each other which will motivate them in the future. Learning how to win is an important lesson early in the season and with these wins show how responsive the players are to the coaching. Westminster will stay in Lexington until the game on March 5th when they play the Pios in 1 game at noon.