Kent State’s baseball team started off their opening weekend with two victories in Florida.

They opened up their season on Friday afternoon with a loss against the University of Iowa. Sophomore pitcher Luke Albright took the loss for the Flashes, allowing two earned runs. The Flashes were defeated 3-1 to start the season. The designated hitter, junior Nick Elsen, had one RBI in the loss for Kent State in the seventh inning.

The Flashes rebounded nicely from Friday’s loss with a 4-3 Saturday victory against Indiana State University in extra innings. Sophomore Max Rippl was the winning pitcher for the Flashes, who completed two innings and only allowed one hit.

Indiana State started the game off fast, scoring one run in each of the first three innings. However, the pitching combination of Collin Romel, Zach Schultz, Rippl and Tyler Drabick threw seven shutout innings to slam the door closed on the Sycamores.

Redshirt junior Ben Carew and senior Patrick Ferguson each had three hits in the victory.

On Sunday morning, Kent had no issue with Saint Joseph’s University, beating them 11-3. Junior Ryan Lane was the winning pitcher for the Flashes in this one, throwing five complete innings and allowing three earned runs.

The story of Sunday’s win for the Flashes was undoubtedly the offense, with Ferguson contributing three more RBIs. Additionally, freshman infielder Mack Timbrook contributed three runs of his own.

Sunday’s win secured Kent State its 2-1 record to start the season in the Sunshine State, where the team will stay throughout the week. On Wednesday, the Flashes will be in Coral Gables to take on the 3-0 Miami Hurricanes at 6 p.m. and can be watched or streamed on the ACC Network.

Nick Pedone is a sports reporter. Contact him at [email protected].