WASHINGTON, D.C.  — The Catholic baseball team opened up the season with a big test in the Matt Kurkjian ALS Awareness Invitational as they welcomed in the second-ranked team in the country in Salve Regina for opening day. Despite hanging around for much of the game, the Seahawks bats came alive in the last two innings and pulled away to coast to an 11-2 win over the Cardinals.

The Seahawks took advantage of a lead off walk in the top of the first inning drawn by Matthew Neal. Back-to-back base hits followed to load up the bases with just one out for Hunter Yaworski who lifted a flyball into deep left field to plate Neal and put Salve Regina up 1-0. The lead doubled the very next inning when Brady Smolinski launched a solo shot to left field to make it 2-0.

Catholic answered in the bottom of the second after Sammy Burman kicked things off with a single back up the box. Burman then advanced to second on a wild pitch to put a runner in scoring position for Logan Eilbacher. Eilbacher put together one of the best at-bats of the day, seeing 10 pitches before lashing a single through the left side of the infield to plate Burman and give the Cardinals their first run of the season and cut the deficit in half.

Roman Tozzi settled in nicely after the first two innings and did not allow a single base runner the rest of his time on the mound. In fact, Tozzi wrapped up his outing by retiring 10 batters in a row, punching out three in that stretch.

Salve Regina opened up a bigger cushion in the top of the eighth when Brandon Grover jacked a two run homer to right field to open the lead to 4-1. From there, the flood gates opened in the ninth inning as the Seahakws brought in 7 runs on six hits to build an insurmountable lead and walk away with a nine run victory.

Inside the Box Score

• Tozzi turned in a solid outing, allowing just two runs over five innings while striking out five and only walking one batter.
• Burman was the lone Catholic hitter to pick up multiple hits in the loss, finishing 2-for-3 with a pair of singles and also drawing a walk.
• Matthew Fisher returned from last season's injury and picked up a base-hit in his pinch hit at-bat in the ninth inning.
• The Salve Regina bullpen combined to allow just one run and one hit over the final 3.1 innings of the game.

The Cardinals return to action tomorrow for the final game of the Matt Kurkjian ALS Awareness Invitational when they take on Stevens. First pitch is slated for 2:30 pm at the Nationals Youth Baseball Academy.