Box Score
JACKSON, Miss.-The Belhaven baseball team kicked off the 2012 season with a 4-0 victory over Blue Mountain College Friday afternoon at Smith-Wills Stadium. Geoffrey Thomas made his Blazer debut on the mound and earned the win, tossing six shutout innings allowing just one hit while striking out five.

Belhaven (1-0) scored solo runs in four consecutive innings beginning in the second on a solo home run by Jason Hicks. Anthony Doss collected an RBI double in the third sending home Tyler Wrinkle from first base. Wrinkle reached on a base hit with one out and had time to scamper home on Doss' double to the gap in left center.

In the fourth inning, Jaime Bruno extended Belhaven's lead to 3-0 with an RBI double of his own. Hamilton Harper walked with one out in front of Bruno and scored on the play. The Blazers capped the scoring in the fifth on Bud Britt's run scoring single that chased home Doss. Thomas and the Blazer bullpen kept the Toppers offense grounded the rest of the game to secure the 4-0 win.

The Blazers had one multi hit game on Friday and that was turned in by Ryan Saunders who went 2 for 3. Tyler Wrinkle went 1 for 1 with three walks and Clay Bonds had a hit in two plate appearances. Matthew Shaw pitched two scoreless innings in relief and Robert Marzoni closed the game in the ninth, combining with Thomas for the shutout.

“It was a good ballgame for us and I thought it was a good first day out,” said Belhaven Coach Hill Denson. “We didn't get a lot of base runners, but we got some big hits to drive in the runs that we needed. Geoffrey (Thomas) pitched well this afternoon, but really all our pitchers pitched well for us. I think we're going to get more hits as time goes on this season. Barber was a pitcher that relies on a lot of off speed and breaking ball pitches and we hadn't seen that style of pitching during the fall. I was a little disappointed that we missed a few other opportunities with runners on and we had to battle to win. However, we closed the game well and this win was big for us.”

Blue Mountain (0-1) had four hits in the game with Dalton Kulas, Hunter Mize, Gardner Richey, and Zack Scott each collecting singles. Jon Paul Barber took the loss pitching the first four innings allowing three of the four runs on six hits. Taylor Clark pitched 1.2 frames and surrendered the other Belhaven run.

Belhaven will be back in action Saturday afternoon when they host Blue Mountain College in a doubleheader starting at 1:00 PM. Fans can hear all the play-by-play action courtesy of Stretch Internet by clicking here.