Tom Russo Field played host to its first game of the year, March 28, as the Varsity Baseball Team faced off with the Rockwood Summit Falcons.

The Falcons came into the game off of a dominating 31-4 victory over University City.

“I don’t think [that game] really prepared them for us,” Mr. James Daffron, head coach, said. “I don’t think it made them any better or worse for that matter.”

After the first two Summit batters reached base to start the game, Brennan Lummus, pitcher, got the third batter to fly-out to left and then struck out the next four batters en route to two scoreless innings.

“I was really proud of the way he threw,” Coach Daffron said. “For being the first game of the year he did a great job.”

The Wildcats came close to drawing first blood but were unable to come through, leaving the bases loaded.

“It set us back a lot,” Nick Hoeflinger, second base, said. “We try to work on a lot of situational hitting, and it just didn’t happen there.”

The game remained scoreless until the fifth when the Falcons struck first after a walk and two singles.

“We didn’t want to get down,” Eric Hansen, left field, said. “We didn’t want to lose our home-opener.”

The Falcons added another run in the sixth to push their lead to 2-0 heading into the final inning.

The bottom of the seventh started off with Hoeflinger reaching base on an error by the Summit shortstop.

Jesse Schueller, center field, swapped places with Hoeflinger after a fielders’ choice. The next two batters, Hansen and Andrew Aydt, third base, walked to load the bases for PJ Hedman, shortstop.

Hedman grounded one to short and drove in a run and reached base thanks to another crucial error by the Summit shortstop.

“They just made some big mistakes at the end,” Coach Daffron said. “We were able to take advantage.”

Zach Seiler, catcher, bat next and was hit by the pitch, driving in another run and tying the game with the bases still loaded for Ian Schnurbusch, first base.

With the infield drawn in to protect the play at the plate, Schnurbusch pulled the 2-0 pitch through hole on the left side of the infield to give the Cats the win.

“It was great because it was the home-opener,” Hansen said. “It was even better to get the win.”

The Wildcats were able to take advantage of two errors, two walks and a hit batter with a walk-off winner.

Until the seventh inning the theme of the game was offensive futility for the Wildcats as they stranded seven runners on the base paths.

“We talked about that a lot throughout the game,” Coach Daffron said. “We left too many guys on base.”

The Wildcats next game is today, March 31, at home against Northwest.