Louisville, KY – UPIKE baseball wrapped up their season opening series with (11) IU-Southeast on Saturday, falling 4-1 and 7-1. The young team showed a lot of improvement throughout the weekend and looks ahead to next weekends home opener.

GAME 1 | L, 4-1

Gabriel Ferrell got the call for his first career start with the Bears in game one, going three complete innings. Ferrell opened the first with a base hit but would recover, not allowing another hit in the inning and adding a strikeout for the second out of the side. The sophomore transfer got the Bears through the second clean, not allowing a hit with only one Grenadier getting on base on a fielder's choice. Ferrell allowed four hits in his final inning, with two runs scored.

Braxton Ratliff was up next and offered two innings allowing two hits and no runs. Davy Jorden and Ryan Ratfliff rounded out the pitching effort for the Bears, finishing the last two innings.

Jairemy Pulido, Noah Helton and Tyler Freas were the offensive producers for the Bears, each recording a hit. Helton was responsible for the only run in game one, sending a rip to center to get on base in the top of the fourth before advancing on Pulido's hit and scoring later on a ground out from Marushi. Helton leads the team in hits with four after opening weekend.

GAME 2 | L, 7-1

It was Muskingum transfer Nolan Fernandes on the bump for the start of game two as the 6'2" right-hander prepared for his UPIKE debut. Fernandes gave up a pair of hits in the first, with one coming via a three-run blast on an 0-2 count. The Chino, CA native gave up three hits each of the next two innings, finishing with 2.1 IP, eight hits, and two strikeouts. Ethan Cernohous offered three and a third innings of relief, only allowing a pair of hits, no runs and striking out three.

Offensively swung for a season high eight hits, including three doubles. Pulido recorded his first multi-hit outing of the season as he poked a base hit and a double that came in the first inning. Helton notched a hit in his third straight game. Tyler Freas had the best performance for the Bears with a double in the third, scoring the Bears lone run later in the inning via an RBI single from Jared Kirkman.

The weekend was a learning experience for the new-look Bears said head coach Casey Hamilton. "Coming into our first series against a team that deserves that number 11 ranking, I was extremely impressed with our teams resilience and ability to compete in every game," said coach Hamilton. "We are a young group who has a few little things to clean up, and toughness to build as a unit."

The Bears pivot their focus to their next series against Oakland City University set for Friday and Saturday, February 12-13^th. Oakland City will be UPIKE baseball's home opener with first pitch at 12PM on Friday and 1PM on Saturday.