Jacksonville, Fla. (February 27, 2016) – The Mount St. Mary's University baseball team dropped a pair of contests in the season-opening doubleheader at Jacksonville on Saturday. Zach Hostetter led the Mount on the day, going 4-7 with three RBI in the pair of contests.

GAME ONE: A late Mountaineer rally fell short in the team's first game as they dropped to Jacksonville by a 15-7 final. Mount St. Mary's scored seven runs in the final two innings, but couldn't complete the comeback, eventually falling by eight.

Jacksonville jumped out to an early lead, posting five runs in the first, two in the second and four in the third. The dolphins registered their first two runs on an RBI groundout and sac fly, before JJ Gould knocked in a runner with an RBI single and Angel Camacho followed with a two-RBI single to right to give Jacksonville a 5-0 lead.

A two-run homer from Austin Hays in the second, followed by a four-run third inning pushed the Dolphin lead to 11-0 after three.

The Mountaineers' offense came alive in the top half of the eighth inning as they put up a four-spot to cut their deficit to 15-4. Chris Wessels scored the team's first run of the season on a fielder's choice, and Hostetter followed with an RBI single to right, scoring Brendan Dabagian on the play. Later in the inning, Sarunas Matalavage scored Hostetter on an RBI groundout, and Patrick Causa also touched home on the play on an error by the Jacksonville shortstop.

In the top of the ninth inning, the Mount added three more runs as Ryan Owens singled through the right side to score Zach Call, Causa knocked in Wessels with an RBI single and Hostetter grounded out to score Owens. The late rally fell short as Jacksonville held off the Mount for the 15-7 win.

Connor Graber went 2.2 innings on the mound and allowed eight earned runs in the losing effort, while Nathan Dirsch went 5.2 scoreless with seven strikeouts to earn the win for Jacksonville.

GAME TWO: In the second game of the doubleheader, Jacksonville scored in each of the first five innings once again, including multiple runs in the second and fifth to take a 10-0 lead midway through the game.

After scoring one in the first inning, the Dolphins put up a three-spot in the second as Austin Hays knocked in a pair with an RBI double and Nathan Koslowski followed with a sac fly for the third run of the frame.

Jacksonville plated a run in the third and fourth innings before scoring four times in the fifth inning. Parker Perez began the scoring with a two-run homer, and the Dolphins picked up another pair of runs on a JJ Gould sac fly and Connor Stephens RBI single.

The Mount responded in the top of the sixth inning as Hostetter scored Ryan Owens with an RBI single and Alex Kriss also crossed home plate on an error by the shortstop. The pair of Mountaineer runs cut the deficit to 11-2 heading into the bottom of the sixth.

Josh Little worked a scoreless sixth on the mound for the Mount, but Jacksonville added one run in the seventh and two in the eighth to seal the 13-2 victory.

Kevin Myers took the loss on the bump for the Mountaineers, working three innings with five earned runs and two strikeouts. Spencer Stockton went 5.2 innings and struck out six to pick up the win for Jacksonville.

UP NEXT: The Mountaineers wrap up the three-game series with Jacksonville on Sunday, February 28, with first pitch scheduled for 1 p.m.