RICHMOND, Va. - Rick Spiers and Michael Nickles combined to drive in six runs to lead the Randolph-Macon College baseball team to a doubleheader sweep of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), on Sunday afternoon at The Diamond. With the wins, the Yellow Jackets open the 2018 season at 2-0, while the Engineers begin 0-2.

Spiers broke a scoreless tie in the bottom of the third inning in game one, singling home Jeff Butler on a line drive to center. Evans then made it 2-0 an inning later, when he went back up the middle to plate Nickles, who doubled down the right field line with two outs.

In the home half of the sixth, Cole Migliorini was hit by a Chris Palmiero pitch with the bases loaded to bring home Randolph-Macon's third run.

Rensselaer rallied for a run in the top of the seventh, thanks to an RBI-single off the bat of Michael Arboleda, which brought home Richard Drumm. The Engineers then got the tying run aboard when Christian Spagnuola reached on an error with one out, but a strikeout and a groundout ended the threat.

The Engineers got the leadoff man on in the eighth, as Weston Hawkins singled and stole second, before moving on to third on a groundout. Drumm flew out to left, stranding Hawkins.

Cody Thompson came on to strike out the side on the top of the ninth to earn the save. He allowed one hit. Nick Roth (1-0) went 5.0 innings for the win, allowing three hits and striking out five. Brendan McNerney (0-1) took the loss for RPI, surrendering one run on five hits over 3.0 innings. He struck out four without a walk.

In game two, Randolph-Macon scored four runs in the first three innings to take an early lead. Evans drove in two of them with a double to the gap in left center, scoring Nickles and Joseph Tuzzolo.

After being held off the board for seven innings, RPI put up three in the eighth, beginning with a two-run double off the bat of Ethann Meister. DJ Marone and Peter Close came around to score, before Meister came home on an RBI-single by J.T. Sawyer.

Spiers pushed the Yellow Jackets' advantage back to two (5-3) with a sac fly in the bottom of the eighth.

Colin Selby (1-0) worked 5.0 hitless inning, striking out 10 and walking one, before giving way to Michael Zubovich, who allowed three runs on six hits in 3.1 innings. Christian Cok picked up the save by working the final four outs.

Patrick McMackin (0-1) suffered the defeat for the Engineers, allowing four runs on four hits in 3.0 innings. He struck out two and walked two. Erick Zecha came on to work 3.0 innings of one-hit ball, striking out four without a walk.

RPI is back in action on March 10, when it takes on Lesley University in Lakeland, Florida (1pm). Randolph-Macon hosts Marymount on Wednesday (2pm).