The Park University Gilbert baseball team (0-1) opened its 2026 season with an 18-3 loss to the College of Idaho (1-0) this afternoon at Tempe Diablo Field #6 in Tempe, Ariz.

The Buccaneers had many new faces in the lineup as well as a new one on the mound in junior transfer Alex Buchanan.

Buchanan got off to a good start allowing one unearned run and one hit in the first three innings. The Bucs took the lead in the bottom of the third with an Eric Rojo walk and then an Evan Vander Valk double moved runners to second and third. Newcomer Jimmy Wood then scored Rojo on an infield single in the 5-6 hole and then Jim Achen III lofted a sacrifice fly to center to score Vander Valk.  

Buchanan ran into issues in the fourth as two walks and an infield single loaded the bases. The next two runs came home on a single to center. Buchanan would hit the next batter to reload the bases before being lifted in favor of Xavier Merritt.

Merritt would strike out the first batter he faced before walking the next batter to bring home the third run in the inning and after another strike out, a wild pitch brought home the fourth and last run of the inning. Buchanan would be charged with all four runs in the inning. He finished with 3-plus innings of work, 5 runs (4 earned) 2 walks and 1 strikeout on 55 pitches.

Merritt would not allow a run and just one hit in the fifth through seventh innings to keep the Bucs close but he would tire in the eighth and allow five of the nine runs the Yotes would put on the board in the inning.

Altogether, The College of Idaho would score 13 runs over the last two innings to bring the final score to 18-3. The Bucs used five pitchers over the last two innings which took over an hour to complete.

At the plate, the Buccaneers only managed five hits and three runs. Two of the hits came off the bat of Wood a junior transfer from Las Vegas, Nev. Achen III, a freshman from Phoenix, Ariz., and Trey Markham a sophomore from Paradise Valley, Ariz., also picked up knocks in their debut and Vander Valk had the only extra base hit.

The Bucs did work 11 walks to their credit but left 12 men on base.

These two teams will return to the field tomorrow afternoon for a double header starting at 12 p.m. at Tempe Diablo.