Joe Valenti tossed seven scoreless innings as the Misericordia University baseball team beat top-ranked Baldwin Wallace, 12-0, on the opening day of their spring trip to Port Charlotte, FL.
 
After the Cougars ninth-inning rally came up just short in a 15-14 loss to Otterbein in the first game of the day, Valenti scattered seven hits and Matt Lanzendorfer and Aidan Paduck both tossed a scoreless inning of relief against Baldwin Wallace.
 
Garrett McIlhenney had four hits and Joe Comins had three hits for the Cougars while Jack Regenye, Brock Bollinger, Jason Sanfilippo, Connor Maryniak and Owen Cordner all had two hits.
 
McIlhenney, Regenye, Bollinger, Comins and Michael Duda all had three hits in the opener.
 
The Cougars got all the runs they needed with a six-run first inning against Baldwin Wallace.
 
After Valenti set the Yellowjackets down in order, McIlhenney opened the bottom of the first with a single and scored on Bollinger's triple.  Maryniak and Comins had RBI-singles and Cordner made it 5-0 with a two-run single to center.  McIlhenney drove in a run with his second hit of the inning.
 
MU added two runs each in the second, fifth and eighth innings.
 
Sanfilippo had an RBI-double in the second and came home on Comins' single to make it 8-0.
 
In the fifth, Gabe Bunn reached via HBP stole second and scored on Cordner's single to right.  McIlhenney followed with a single to center to extend the lead to 10-0.
 
Brian Korchok added a two-run inside-the-park homer in the eighth to close out the scoring.
 
Earlier in the day, the Cougar scored six runs in the bottom of the ninth, but left two runners in scoring position.
 
Otterbein led 2-1 after one inning and the Cougars tied it in the second.  McIlhenney drew a lead-off walk in the bottom of the first and scored on Bollinger's double.  Comins' solo homer to right center tied the game in the second.
 
The Cardinals took a 4-2 lead in the fourth, but the Cougars answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame.  Sanfilippo was hit by a pitch and scored on a squeeze bunt and Jeff Policarpio drove in the tying run on a sac fly.
 
Otterbein scored 11 runs in the next two innings to take a 15-4 lead through 5-1/2 innings.
 
MU got three back in the sixth and added another in the eighth.  Andrew Van Horn had a two-run double in the sixth and Burger added an RBI-single.  Duda singled to lead off the eighth and later scored on Regenye's single to center.
 
The Cougars plated six runs in the ninth.  Duda and Bunn had run-scoring singles in the ninth and McIlhenney drove in another on an HBP.  Regenye singled in a run and Jared Hoffman drove in two runs with a single through the right side to pull the Cougars within a run.