Box Score 1 | Box Score 2 The Valparaiso University baseball team opened the 2025 season on Friday, dropping a 4-2 cliffhanger in the season opener before host Samford pulled away for a 14-4, seven-inning victory in the nightcap in Birmingham, Ala.
 
How It Happened – Game 1

• Valpo starting pitcher redshirt junior Connor Lockwood (Libertyville, Ill. / Libertyville) was touched for an unearned run in the opening inning, and Samford tacked on two more in the third to make it 3-0 advantage.
• Lockwood sent down the side in order with two strikeouts in the second, then replicated that feat in the fourth. He followed with a 1-2-3 fifth and worked around leadoff singles in the sixth and seventh frames. The Valpo right-hander permitted one more run in the eighth before taking the tough-luck loss despite an eight-inning complete game allowing four runs (three earned) on seven hits while striking out seven and walking none.
• The Beacons were held hitless through the first five innings, but redshirt freshman Case Sullivan (Carmel, Ind. / Carmel) led off the sixth with a single up the middle before senior Ryan Maka (Oak Forest, Ill. / Oak Forest) drilled a two-run homer to right to cut the lead to 3-2. However, that was the extent of the Valpo run production in the season opener.

Inside the Game – Game 1

• Lockwood delivered Valpo's first complete game since Bryce Konitzer had one of the seven-inning variety on April 28, 2024 at UIC.
• This was Lockwood's second career complete game after he went all nine on March 30 of last season vs. Bradley.
• Maka's home run was the 17^th of his collegiate career, four shy of cracking the program's all-time top 10.
• Maka finished the game with two of the team's four hits.

How It Happened – Game 2

• Samford scored twice in the opening inning, but a single by Kade Reinertson (Huxley, Iowa / Ballard Community) got the Beacons on the board in the top of the second.
• The Bulldogs plated a half a dozen in the bottom of the second, opening up an 8-1 lead.
• Junior Austin Amburgey (Miamisburg, Ohio / Miamisburg) delivered a run-scoring single in the top of the third, but Samford got that run right back in the bottom of the inning.
• Maka rocketed his second home run of the day to right field in the top of the fourth.
• Samford responded with a two-run homer of its own in the bottom of the inning as part of a three-run frame and tacked on two more in the sixth on its way to invoking the 10-run rule.

Inside the Game – Game 2

• Maka drilled his 18^th career home run, moving to within three of cracking the program's all-time top 10.
• The hit column was closer than the run column in the nightcap, as the Bulldogs held a slim 11-9 advantage over the Beacons.
• Senior Liam Patton (Barrington, Ill. / Warsaw) doubled as part of a two-hit game, while Sullivan had four hits total on his first day in a Valpo uniform after going 3-for-3 with a walk in Game 2 out of the leadoff spot in the lineup.

Up Next
Valpo (0-2) will close out the season-opening series at Samford at 1 p.m. on Sunday. The game will not be streamed, but live stats will be available.