ALAMEDA, Calif. – When the clock struck 12 and senior right-hander Luke Lacy delivered the first pitch against Central Washington, it signaled the beginning of the 2018 ART U baseball season. Both Lacy and game two's starter, junior righty Ben Kaser, delivered impressive starts, but the Wildcats' pitching stifled the Urban Knights' batters, forcing Academy of Art to drop both games in the season's first doubleheader.
 
GAME TWO: CWU 5, ART U 1
 
Lacy cruised through the opening three innings, only allowing two hits while striking out three batters. It was not until the fourth when Central Washington was able to score their only run off of the Valencia, Calif. native. After reaching by way of a hit-by-pitch, CWU's James Smith III stole second and advanced to third on a passed ball. The following batter walked which set up a first and third situation for the Wildcats' Christopher Dalto. Dalto laced a double to left center, scoring Smith from third. However, the inning came to an end on the play when the runner at first attempted to head home as well: starting in left field, senior Izac Bauer threw to senior Taylor Martin at shortstop who, in turn, threw a perfect shot to junior catcher Zak May who tagged the runner as he slid into the plate.
 
Looking to respond in the bottom of the frame, Bauer reached first and later advanced on a wild pitch. However, he remained stranded in scoring position as the following two batters flew out and popped up out of play.
 
After six innings of work, Lacy was replaced in the seventh by junior Donnie Gardiner, making his Academy of Art debut. Gardiner closed out the final three innings, but gave up four runs over his first two innings of work.
 
ART U was not yet finished however, as the Urban Knights refused to go down without a fight. In the ninth inning, junior infielder Elijah Smith recorded his first hit an ART U uniform, a double down the left field line. Junior first baseman Josh Carlin also followed with his first-career hit, a hard-hit single to the backhand of the second baseman. Now with runners at the corners and no outs, May stepped up to the plate. Despite hitting it hard up the middle, CWU's shortstop managed to snag the ball, tag second base and throw to first to record the double play. On the play, Smith came in to score, but it was all the Knights would get as they fell to the Wildcats by the score of 5-1.
 
Lacy's quality start looked like this: 6.0 innings pitched, three hits, one earned run, three walks, and four strikeouts. ART U only recorded three hits in game one, but Smith's ninth-inning, leadoff-double was the biggest as it fueled their rally.
 
GAME TWO: CWU 4, ART U 0
 
The story for game two was similar to the first: Kaser posted a strong outing, but the Urban Knights' offense came up short.
 
Tossing a total of 5.1 innings, Kaser did not allow a run until the sixth frame when Central Washington managed to push three across (one earned). However, in his first five innings of work, the Van Nuys, Calif. native only surrendered a pair of hits while striking out five batters. His sole earned run came in top of the sixth when CWU's Dustin Braun hit the second pitch of the at-bat over the left field wall. After forcing the following batter to fly out, the next Wildcat reached on a fielding error, forcing Kaser to depart the contest. CWU scored twice more in the inning and ART U headed to bottom of the sixth trailing 3-0.
 
In the seven-inning contest, the Urban Knights looked once again to build a rally in their final at-bats after the Wildcats put one more across in the top of the frame. With one out, junior infielder Michael Maleski reached first on a 6-pitch walk, but he did could advance as a double play ended the contest.
 
With four hits in the game, the majority of their production came from the middle of the lineup, specifically the third (Bauer), fourth (senior outfielder Evan Ray) and sixth (senior catcher Marciano Reichel) batters in the lineup. Each of them recorded a hit while junior outfielder Taj Dawson received his first hit of the season as well.
 
Academy of Art will close out the series with Central Washington on Saturday when they return to College of Alameda on February 10 at noon.