TUCSON, Ariz. – The Macalester College baseball team kicked off its Spring Break trip to Arizona with a pair of wins over Simpson College, 3-1 and 12-0 Saturday afternoon at the Tucson Invitational, held at the Kino Sports Complex. The Scots improve to 4-2 with the sweep, while the Storm falls to 1-8.

In the first game, Macalester struck first in the bottom of the third inning. Senior Ben Castagnetti (Bethesda, Md./Walt Whitman) and first year Jack Sahargun (Coto de Caza, Calif./Tesoro) led off with singles, then sophomore Alex Bearden (St. Louis, Mo./Mary Institute Country Day) bunted the runners to second and third. Sophomore Carl Francalangia followed with a double to left field, plating both Castagnetti and Sahargun for a 2-0 lead. Simpson pushed a run across in the top of the fourth on a ground-rule double by Nathan Carlin that scored Scott Meier. Junior Graham Low (Piedmont, Calif./Piedmont) opened the bottom of the fourth with a triple and came home on a sacrifice fly from senior Collin Brantner (Farmington, Conn./Kingswood Oxford) for a 3-1 lead.

Sophomore pitcher Matthew Plisko (Alpharetta, Ga./Pace Academy) started and held Simpson to a run on four hits while striking out five in five innings. Junior Zach Anderson (Evanston, Ill./Evanston Township) tossed two scoreless innings of relief, allowing just one hit while fanning two.

In Game 2, Brantner and Low hit RBI singles in the top of the first for a 2-0 advantage. Then in the second, senior Alex Baretta (Pittsburgh, Pa./Central Catholic) belted a three-run home run to put the Scots on top, 5-0. Junior Sam Goldberg (North Potomac, Md./Thomas S. Wootton) and first year Cooper Jensen (Washington, D.C./The Field School) each hit two-run singles to make it a 9-0 lead. Jensen also drew a walk with the bases loaded in the fourth, while Bearden and junior Andy Hayes (Chicago, Ill./Whitney Young) plated runs with sacrifice flies. The Scots finished with 12 runs on 11 hits while walking 10 times.

Senior pitcher Joe Trier (Madison, Wis./West) held the Storm hitless over the first 3 1/3 innings and ended up allowing two hits and no runs over five innings while striking out eight and walking two.

Macalester continues play at the Tucson Invitational with a game against Mayville State on Sunday, Mar. 11, beginning at 12:30 p.m. at the Kino Sports Complex.