It was far from a picturesque opening day – the sky was slightly overcast, the temperature in the lower 40s, the lake outside the ballpark choppy, and the sparse crowd of 30 people were all wrapped in blankets and had their heads covered with beanies and hoodies of all colors.

And Wolfpack baseball’s last inning rally fell a run short from upsetting No. 4 Auburn University-Montgomery, but mass communication junior Bobby Alvarez was glad to finally be out on the baseball diamond once again.

“It feels great to be back. We had a short fall because our field (at Bayou Segnette) is being redone, so we’ve mostly been practicing in the Rec Plex,” he said.

“We lost, but it’s nice to get first game jitters out of the way.”

Alvarez, the starting pitcher, surrendered eight hits and six runs while amassing four strikeouts in five innings of works.

For the rest of the weekend, he went 2-for-2 at the plate against Thomas and scored a run.

“I’d been thinking about this the whole week. Everyone’s been counting down to it. Last night, I got to bed early to rest up for today and it was nice to finally be out,” he said.

WOLFPACK FALLS 6-5 IN SEVEN INNING SHOWDOWN

Down 6-0 in the bottom of the fourth, third baseman Brian Mason, management senior, finally got the Wolfpack going with a line shot double over the third baseman and the left outfielder.

Finance junior Marc Jaynes, the next batter, slammed a 2-2 pitch for a homerun over the right field wall to cut the deficit to 6-2. Jaynes also authored the defensive play of the game, when he chased down a pop fly in foul territory in front of the first base dugout. In front of Auburn’s bench, he slid feet first to snag the fly and retire the top of the 6th.

Auburn loaded the bases on walks in the bottom of the 7th with no outs. Pinch hitter Josh Borges, facing a 3-1 count, spiked a line drive into the grass and off the second baseman’s leg. The fielder’s error scored two runs for Loyola and Borges tallied one RBI.

Loyola scored a run off a Jerry Campos, marketing senior, sacrifice fly to make it 6-5.

Then centerfielder Matt Dozier, religious studies freshman, with the tying run on second, stepped up and hit a line drive into shallow center field. Auburn had moved their outfield in and by an acrobatic catch, the centerfielder ended the game with the third out of the bottom of the 7th. Management sophomore Mike Kelly relieved Alvarez, facing eight batters and surrendering one hit.

Shortstop Andy Rodriguez, mass communication senior, (0-for-3) had three errors.

In the nine-inning second half of the double-header, Loyola lost 15-0 and later lost to Thomas College 6-2.