Blue Mountain, Miss. –The William Woods University baseball team opened the 2019 season with a doubleheader at Blue Mountain College. The Owls dropped the opening series, 3-1 and 8-7.
 
The Owls face Blue Mountain for a second doubleheader series on Saturday, Feb. 2. First pitch is slated for 12 p.m. 
 
Game One
BMC came out swinging in the bottom of the first. With bases loaded, pitcher Taran Oulton struck out their fourth batter for the first out. The next batter hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield, bringing in the first run of the game. The second run came on an RBI single, and the third run scored on a passed ball. Oulton pulled the Owls out of the inning with a strikeout.
 
The Owls had two reach on a walk in the beginning of the second inning. With one out, Isaiah Gibbs singled to left field, bringing home Jordan Smith and advancing Trevor Garriott to third. BMC recorded outs on the next two plays to leave Garriott and Gibbs stranded.
 
The Owls defense held BMC to three up, three down in the next five innings, but they were unable to put a runner in scoring position themselves.
 
The Owls recorded three hits in the game. 
 
Oulton (0-1) pitched the complete game and struck out six. 
 
 
Game Two
The Owls took an early 3-0 lead in the top of the first as Quincy Jones hit an RBI single to right field to bring home Chase Gibson. A wild pitch gave Connor Poulson the go ahead to cross home plate. As the sixth batter with two outs, Marquise Doherty singled to centerfield, bringing home Jones. With three runs scored, a ground out ended the inning for the Owls. 
 
BMC scored two in the bottom of the second on errors.
 
In the top of the third, the Owls scored three more. Tyler Bracht scored on a misplayed grounder to give the Owls a 4-2 lead. Doherty scored, followed by J. Smith scoring on a passed ball. Gibbs scored the final run of the inning on Russell Strilchuk's groundout, giving the Owls the 7-2 advantage.
 
BMC scored one in the bottom of the third on an RBI double to left field. They added two more in the bottom of the fourth to bring the game to 7-5.
 
BMC began the bottom of the fifth with a homerun over left field. With two outs and two on base, they scored on an RBI single to center to tie the game at 7-7. The Owl's defense managed to grab the final out on the next play, sending the game into the sixth.
 
BMC added one more run in the sixth inning off a wild throw to take the 8-7 lead.
 
A Zach Smith walk started the seventh inning, but three consecutive outs ends the game for the Owls.
 
The Owls recorded five hits in the game.