Freshman Mike Hart tied a school record with four extra-base hits in his first career game to lead a 16-hit attack as the Muhlenberg baseball team opened the 2004 season with a 13-4

Freshman Jason Bonder struck out his first batter and went on to pitch two shutout innings in his debut.

home win against Moravian.

Hart tripled in his first two at-bats and later added two doubles to tie a 70-year-old school record. William Saalfeld was the last Mule to rap out four extra-base hits in a game, against Lehigh in 1934.

Hitting out of the No. 2 position, Hart sprayed the ball all over the field, tripling to deep center in the first, doubling down the left-field line in the sixth and doubling over the rightfielder’s head in the seventh. He scored four runs and drove in three.

The 13 runs were the most scored by Muhlenberg in a season-opener since a

Junior Aaron Regensburg turned this double play to end the fifth inning and hit a two-out, two-run single in the sixth.

13-6 win against Temple in 1951. The school record for runs in the first game is 15, set in 1927.

Juniors C.J. Kessler and Matthew Long had three hits and scored three runs apiece, giving the Mules 10 hits and 10 runs scored from the top three hitters in their order.

Kessler singled up the middle and Hart tripled to put Muhlenberg up 1-0 two batters and five pitches into the season. In the third, Hart again tripled in Kessler, and a sacrifice fly by senior Adam Sadler and the first of two RBI doubles from sophomore Brian LaRochelle made it 4-0.

Senior Joel Rush singled in Hart, who had been hit by a pitch, in the fourth, and the Mules – who did not strike out once in the entire game – broke the contest open with a five-run sixth.

Six pitchers took turns on the mound in preparation for the upcoming trip to Florida. Senior Chris O’Connor struck out three in his two innings of work to earn his 14th career win. Freshman Eric Wolfer, making his collegiate debut, retired all five batters he faced after entering in a bases-loaded jam.

The win gave Muhlenberg a 6½-5½ lead in the Matte Award standings for the 2003-04 year. The next Matte contest is a men’s tennis match on Tuesday, March 16.

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