AUBURNDALE, FL- The Utica College baseball team fell 14-2 on Wednesday to the University of Minnesota Morris. The Pioneers fall to 0-5 so far this season while the Cougars improved to 3-3. UC returns to action on Thursday when the team faces McDaniel College in back to back games starting at 9:30 a.m.
 
JT Ross (New York Mills, NY/New York Mills) went 2-for-3 with a walk, an RBI, and a run scored while Vincent Burillo (Montgomery, NY/Valley Central ) went 2-for-4 with an RBI. Matthew DeMartino (Oceanside, NY/Oceanside) had a successful day at the designated hitter spot going 3-for-3.
 
Minnesota Morris jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back adding four runs in the third, three runs in the fourth, two runs in the fifth, two runs in the sixth, and one run in the seventh. Utica finally got on the scoreboard in the eighth inning when Burillo singled home Ross. The Pioneers would strike again in the ninth inning when Ross hit a sacrifice fly that drove in Jake Ryan (Kingston, NY/Kingston).
 
For the Cougars lefty Sam Melchior pitched seven shutout innings getting five strikeouts and earned the win. Tyler Hannan pitched one inning while Samuel Palmatier finished the last inning for Minnesota Morris.
 
Ethan Bliss (Cooperstown, NY /Cooperstown) got the start for the Pioneers and went 3.2 innings before Justin Shabman (Cortlandt Manor, NY/Kennedy Catholic) came in to finish the fourth inning. Dom Caccioppoli (Circleville, NY/Pine Bush ) entered the game in the fifth inning and pitched the final five innings while striking out two.