PELHAM, Ala. – The Olivet Nazarene University baseball team opened its 2025 campaign with a win over Huntington Friday afternoon in Pelham, Ala. The win came in the first game of a four-game series against the Foresters over the weekend.

The Tigers used a big fourth inning to power past Huntington in the opener. After the Foresters broke a scoreless tie with a run in the bottom of the third, ONU responded with a five-spot in the fourth inning to break it wide open.

With two runners on and one out, Aden Aukland punched in Taylor Bledsoe with a line-drive single to left field. Evan Pogioli followed up with a walk to load the bases, which Andy Onnen then cleared on the next at-bat. The senior roped a double down the left-field line to drive in three runs. Onnen eventually wheeled home on a wild pitch to give ONU a 5-1 lead through four.

The Tigers tacked on two more in the following frame thanks to another RBI off the bat of Onnen and one from Masen Beatty. Luke Shoven went four innings as the starter, passing the ball over Michael Freitas with a two-run lead who shut down the Foresters. Freitas pitched three scoreless, no-hit innings to tack down the 8-5 season-opening win.

After giving up five runs in a hurry in Friday's nightcap, ONU pieced together a late rally with five runs in the seventh inning to tie the score. Aukland capped the rally with a bases-loaded, two-out double to right field to make it a 7-7 ball game heading into the final innings.

But the Foresters would prevail with a walk-off single in the ninth inning to hand ONU the loss. And Saturday's doubleheader resulted in two more defeats for the Tigers, suffering a 19-5 setback in the opener before dropping a tightly-contested 5-3 decision in the series finale.

The Tigers will look to build some momentum when they face Goshen next weekend in Rantoul, Ill.

--ONU—

*Contact: Evan Wild, Sports Information Director, ewwild@olivet.edu