Published: February 29, 2008 11:11 am         

Allegany wins opener

KINSTON, N.C. - Allegany College baseball coach Steve Bazarnic said his team, because of the cold, snowy weather, hadn't practiced outside in two weeks.

It would have been difficult to convince anyone of that at Wednesday's season opener as the Trojans debuted with a solid 7-4 victory over the Lenoir Lancers.

Lee Bainbridge gave Allegany an early lead with a home run in the first inning, Ryan MacNamara threw six effective innings for the win, Dave Fringer and John Byrum combined for three scoreless innings of relief, and the Trojans played errorless defense in the nine-inning game.

"It's nice to get out and a good way to start the season,'' said Bazarnic. "It's a pretty big win on the road, coming right out of the gym. We've been outside on the field for practice five times so far, and the last time was two weeks ago."

Wednesday afternoon the Trojans never trailed, scored in their first three at-bats, and were up 5-1 after three innings.

In the first, A.J. Czap walked, and with two outs Bainbridge homered to left. The lead doubled to 4-0 in the second on RBI singles by Czap and Erik Kempton, and Chad McCoy's RBI single in the third made it 5-0.

Lenoir cut it to 5-2 after four innings, but Matt Gruber got one of the runs back with an RBI single in the AC sixth.

MacNamara pitched six innings, scattered nine hits, walked one and struck out three in getting his first collegiate win.

Fringer hurled two scoreless innings and Byron came on in the ninth with a man on and no one out and earned a save, getting the final out with a strikeout and the bases loaded.

Bainbridge led the Allegany offense, going 3-for-4 with a homer, double and single. Tyler Ham had three hits and two RBIs for Lenoir.

The teams play again today in a noon doubleheader.