BRADENTON, Fla. – St. Vincent College earned a 12-1 opening game victory over Hilbert College in baseball this afternoon and capped the day off with an 11-4 sweep. 

Hilbert, trailing 11-0 through four innings, put a single run on the board in the top of the 5th which prevented a shutout loss to the Bearcats in the early game. 

The Hawks were competitive in the night cap, trailing 5-3 after two innings, but stalled offensively as the  game progress and suffered their second loss to St. Vincent.

GAME ONE

Chad Nelson went 3.1 innings earned the game's only strike out while giving up six earned runs off nine hits. 

The Bearcats, who hit only one double and one triple, connected all their 12 hits together for 12 runs through six innings.

The Hawks earned five hits with Jonathan Wilson going 1 for 2 while scoring the only run in the fifth inning.  Wilson started the inning off with a double to left field and Anthony DiNizo's single scored the baserunner.

GAME TWO

The Hawks gave up four runs in the top of the 1st inning and trailed 5-0 before they did their damage in the bottom of the 2nd.

After Christopher Karam took 1st base off a walk, he quickly made it to third after moving the bags with James DiSanti at the plate.  Jared Welnowski's 2 RBI single evolved into him resting at third base after a wild pitch. Benjamin Heilig singled down the right field line and pushed  in the third Hilbert run.

St. Vincent  stretched their score to 8-3 a half inning later and it stayed that way until the Bearcats added two more scores in the 5th.

The Hawks mustered one more run in the bottom of the 6th when Ian Moran took a hit-by-pitch walk to the bag.  Aggressive base running got him to second off a steal, and he moved to third off a pop out to center field. Moran sprinted home the next batter.

Heilig finished with 2 RBI off two hits and Welnowski went 2 for 2, scored once and picked up 2RBI as well.

Frank Propis took his first loss on the mound giving up eight earned runs off 11 hits after striking out two in four innings.

Be sure to stay up-to-date on all your Hilbert Hawk scores and awards by following @HilbertAthletic on Twitter and by liking the "Hilbert College Athletics" Facebook page.  Additionally, fans of the Hawks who have an Apple device can receive push notification from the newly created Hilbert College Hawks iOS SIDEARM mobile App which can be found in the Apple Store and ITunes.