Photo courtesy of gobonnies.com
BY: WILL NUNN; CO-EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, SPORTS EDITOR
Upon the conclusion of the 2025 season last May, the St. Bonaventure University baseball team embarked on an offseason that brought with it massive renovations at Handler Park, additions to the coaching staff and a number of roster additions.
Now the offseason has come and gone, and the Bonnies, who carry with them great expectations, began the 2026 season with a four-game split on the road against the University of North Carolina at Asheville.
“After a long off-season, it felt great to finally get to see how this team would perform on the field,” said junior right-handed pitcher Enger Paulino. “We all have high expectations for ourselves and expect to do great things.”
Opening Day had an early start for the Bonnies, who played doubleheaders on Friday, Feb. 13 and Saturday, Feb. 14 due to inclement weather in the forecast for Sunday. The 2 p.m. start time was not an issue for UNC Asheville, who jumped on Bonaventure senior starting pitcher David James for three runs in the first inning.
Bulldogs sophomore catcher Blaize Johnson broke the game open in the fifth, with a three-run homer to extend the lead to 7-0. The Bonaventure offense struggled to produce against a duo of Asheville right-handers, senior Lucas Boesen and redshirt freshman Drew Turner. The pair combined to shut out the Bonnies, allowing just four hits and striking out a combined seven batters en route to an 8-0 win.
Despite the loss, Bonaventure entered game two with confidence, and immediately flipped the script. The Bonnies scored a pair of runs in the first inning thanks to a double by redshirt junior outfielder Anthony Fernandez, who scored on a single by junior catcher Antonio Cordeiro.
“After losing game one, I don’t think any of us were too worried,” Paulino said. “What went wrong for us in that game was a result of the limited game-like reps we had due to being from a place where the weather doesn’t permit us to. We just had to get our feet wet.”
Asheville climbed back, tying the game in the bottom of the frame and taking a 4-2 lead in the third. A three-run homer by Fernandez headlined a 5-run fourth inning which gave Bonaventure a 7-4 lead, before the Bulldogs once again evened the score in the bottom half of the fifth.
Redshirt junior designated hitter Ashton Ross’ double to right put the Bonnies back on top in the sixth, and a solo shot by junior third baseman Manuel Castro capped off the 11-7 win which evened the series.
As Saturday rolled around, Bonaventure picked up right where they left off, grabbing an early lead thanks to a 4-run third inning which saw eight batters step to the plate. Castro belted his second homer of the series–a two-run shot in the seventh–and Paulino struck out four across five innings of one-run ball as a 10-5 win gave the Bonnies the series lead going into the second act of the twin bill.
Cordeiro kickstarted the scoring with an RBI single in the top of the first of the series finale, but it all unraveled from there for Bonaventure.
Asheville plated four runs on four hits in the bottom of the first, and the Bonnies offense was unable to muster another run, as the Bulldogs closed the series with a 9-1 win.
An opening weekend series split is a step in a positive direction for St. Bonaventure baseball, who have not achieved a winning season since 2017, but more work can be done to ensure the winning ways continue.
“Moving forward, I believe the emphasis will be on playing more cohesively in terms of the offense and defense playing well at the same time,” said Paulino.
The Bonnies continue their pursuit of prolonged success in Murfreesboro, Tenn. with a three-game series against Middle Tennessee State University. The series begins on Friday, Feb. 20 with first pitch scheduled for 4 p.m.
