BABSON PARK, Fla. (January 24, 2020) – The highly anticipated 2020 opening day for the No. 16 Webber International University baseball team, which marked the beginning of the team's first season under its second head coach in program history, Collin Martin, has come and gone. Thanks to a four-error fifth inning by the Royals and a go-ahead two-run home run by senior Nolan Soliveres in the seventh inning, the Warriors were able to come back from a 5-0 deficit to win 8-6 over their Crooked Lake rival Warner University on Friday night on the Heart of Florida Baseball Field.

Webber (1-0), which was picked No. 16 in the 2020 NAIA Baseball Coaches' Preseason Top 25 Poll and was also selected fourth in The Sun Conference's Preseason Coaches' Poll, opened its season against Warner (0-1) for the 12th season in a row and improved to 8-4 in those games. Additionally, the Warriors have now won three of their last four season openers against the Royals, who finished up their 2019 season with 40-plus win and ended up receiving votes in the 2019 NAIA Baseball Coaches' Postseason Top 25 Poll. In the Sun Conference baseball preseason poll for this year, Warner was picked to finish fifth, one spot behind the Warriors.

Down 5-0 in the bottom of the fifth inning, Webber's comeback began with a one-out single to right field by junior Ricky Neyman. That is where things got sloppy for the Royals as a single to left by sophomore Nick Martinez on the next at bat followed by an error by the Warner left fielder allowed Neyman to score all the way from first base and get the Warriors on the scoreboard.

Next up was senior Rougie Odor, who singled up the middle before Martinez scored on the ensuing error by the Warner centerfielder, the second straight play featuring a Royals' error.

Two batters later, senior Carlo Mancillas recorded Webber's first run batted in of the contest on a hard hit ball past the shortstop to score Odor and make the score 5-3. Things then got really messy for the Royals as two errors on one play, the first by the third baseman followed by the second error in the inning by the left fielder, on a ball hit by the next Warrior batter, junior Bryan Eusebio, led to two more runs by senior Norberto Navarro and Mancillas to tie the game at 5-5

In addition to coming all the way back to tie it, the Warriors even took the lead in the bottom of the fifth as junior Orlando Pena hit a sacrifice fly to right field to score Eusebio and cap off the six-run inning for the home team.

Then, after the Royals came back to tie it at 6-6 with a run in a top of the seventh inning that featured two doubles for Warner, Webber wasted very little time trying to retake the lead as Mancillas led off the bottom of the seventh with a walk before two batters later, Soliveres launched his third career home run over the left field wall to put the Warriors up for good.

Senior relief pitcher Gerig Blackman then entered in the top of the eighth trying to record the two-inning save, and he did just that by holding Warner to only one hit in each of his two innings and striking out two batters in the eighth before finishing things off by getting a 5-4-3 double play to end the game.

It was the fourth career save for Blackman, who during his first season as a Warrior in 2019 was named a Second-Team All-Sun Conference selection.

Earning the win for the Warriors was junior Austin Dreher (1-0), who allowed only three hits and one run while striking out two batters during his three innings of work starting in the fifth, just one half inning before the Warriors' rally.

Soliveres was the only Warrior on the day with two hits, finishing 2-for-3 with two RBI's, a double, a home run and a walk.

After a doubleheader with the Royals tomorrow on Saturday, January 25, starting at 12 p.m. on Warner's campus, Webber will then welcome Columbia International University of the Appalachian Athletic Conference into Babson Park, Florida, for a three-game series starting with a single game at 6 p.m. on Friday, January 31. It will be the start of 11 straight home games for the Warriors, which is only their second longest stretch of home games throughout the 2020 campaign.

Congrats to new Webber International University Head Baseball Coach Collin Martin on his first career win as the new leader of the Warriors.