Bowdoin College baseball coach Mike Connolly likes his pitching a lot, especially when sophomore lefty Christian Martin takes the mound.

Martin was 3-0 with a 1.69 earned-run average during the team’s season-opening 10-6 Florida trip, and was on the mound when the Polar Bears hosted Wesleyan University in the first game of a Saturday doubleheader.

The hurler’s ERA didn’t go up much, but his team failed to provide offensive punch in a 2-1 loss to the Cardinals in the Polar Bears’ home opener.

In Game 2, Bowdoin earned a 1-0 victory in a nine inning contest to improve to 11-7, while the Cardinals stand at 8-9 after the split.

“Base runners are precious, and today we didn’t take care of business,” Connolly told his team after the first game.

Bowdoin managed just three hits — a single each by Aaron Rosen, Sam Canales and Buddy Shea — against Wesleyan starter Brett Yarusi, who pitched into the seventh inning with five strikeouts, three walks and just the one unearned run against.

“I was able to mix my pitches pretty well, working up and down, inside and out,” said Yarusi, who watched as Cardinals closer Jeff Blout finished up by retiring the three batters he faced in the seventh after Yarusi walked Shea on four pitches to begin the inning.

Run without a hit

Both pitchers were dominant early, with neither permitting a hit through two innings.

Wesleyan scored without the benefit of a hit in the third inning. Sam Goodwin-Boyd worked a nine-pitch walk off of Martin, and Steve Moran battled through an eight-pitch atbat to also draw a base on balls to put two runners on with nobody out. Kyle Weiss fought off a tough, 0-2 pitch to drop down a sacrifice bunt to move the runners along 90 feet, and Andrew Yin’s grounder to third scored Goodwin-Boyd for a 1-0 Cardinals lead.

Bowdoin got some licks in during the home half of the third. With two outs, Rosen and Canales each singled, but Yarusi retired Tim McGarry on an infield flyball to end the threat.

Wesleyan doubled its lead in the fourth. Joe Giaimo doubled to the base of the wall in left field to open the inning and scored on a two-out RBI single by David Skura. Goodwin-Boyd and Moran followed with a single each for the Cardinals, but Polar Bear center fielder McGarry threw a strike to his catcher Shea, who put the tag on Skura to keep Bowdoin down just 2-0.

The Polar Bears manufactured a run in the sixth, as McGarry reached second on a throwing error, third on a wild pitch and home plate on a grounder by Dan Findley.

Martin threw 102 pitches through six innings of work, allowing five hits, two earned runs and two walks with five strikeouts. Jay Loughlin relieved in the seventh, pitching out of a bases-loaded jam by retiring Alex Meadow on an infield flyball. Loughlin allowed one hit, one walk and hit a batter in his one inning of work, while Blout earned the save with one strikeout.

Game 2

Bowdoin’s Oliver Van Zant and Wesleyan’s Mike Barsotti put on a show, as both hurlers posted impressive lines.

Barsotti tossed eight innings, striking out 13 Bowdoin batters and permitting just three hits and no earned runs in a toughluck loss.

The Van Zant brothers were just as good for Bowdoin, with Oliver going six frames, permitting five hits and whiffing 10 batters in a no-decision before giving way to brother Henry, who earned his first collegiate win with three innings of relief, striking out three batters.

The Polar Bears scraped together their lone run in the bottom of the eighth, as Beau Breton led off with a single through the right side and pinch-runner Kyle LeBlanc moved to second on a wild pitch. Pinch hitter Chris Cameron’s sacrifice bunt attempt was fielded by Barsotti, who threw wide of first base, allowing LeBlanc to come around from second to score the go-ahead run.

The Cardinals put runners on first and second to open the ninth, but Henry Van Zant rebounded with a strikeout of Meadow for the first out of the frame. He whiffed Skura, and Shea caught Giaimo attempting to steal third base to end the game.

Giaimo had three hits for the Cardinals, while three different Polar Bears each had a hit.

Bowdoin is scheduled to return to action at home against Bates on Friday at 3 p.m. The teams will meet at Lewiston on Saturday in a noon doubleheader.

Wesleyan 2, Bowdoin 1

At Brunswick, Game 1
Wesleyan — 001 100 0 — 2-6-2
Bowdoin — 000 001 0 — 1-3-3
Brett Yarusi, Jeff Blout (7) and Chris
Bonti; Christian Martin, Jay Loughlin (7)
and Buddy Shea.
Doubles — (W) Joe Giaimo.
Repeat hitters — None.

Bowdoin 1, Wesleyan 0

Game 2
Wesleyan — 000 000 000 — 0-6-2
Bowdoin — 000 000 01X — 1-3-0
Mike Barsotti and Chris B onti; Oliver Van
Zant, Henry Van Zant and and Buddy
Shea.
Doubles — (W) Joe Giaimo.
Repeat hitters — Joe Giaimo 3.
Records — Bowdoin 11-7; Wesleyan 8-9.
Next for the Polar Bears — Friday at
home against Bates, 3 p.m.