Winter Haven, Fla. – Saint Vincent College banged out 17 hits and Gary Gerhardt tossed seven strong innings and the Bearcats opened up their 2012 season with a 10-2 win over Clark University on Sunday morning at Chain O'Lakes Park.

Eric Fichter had two hits and four RBI while Joey Fearer collected three of his own in the Saint Vincent offensive outburst.

Andrew LeBlanc (Farmington, Conn.) yielded 11 of the 17 hits in his seven innings of work, giving up five earned runs. He walked six and struck out four, while freshman Michael Mainuli (Glastonbury, Conn.) tossed the final two innings in his collegiate debut allowing two runs on six hits.

The Bearcats struck for four runs in the second highlighted by a two-run single by Brad Burkhardt, but the Cougars answered back with two of their own in the bottom of the sixth. After Jeremy Gerber (Amherst, Mass.) and Matt Bohl (Amherst, Mass.) each reached on singles, Gerber came around to score on a wild pitch and Bohl crossed the dish on a Nicholas Kellogg (Florence, Mass.) base hit.

Saint Vincent plated two runs in the seventh and then added four more in the ninth, including two on a single to center on by Fichter.

Kellogg and Gerber each had two hits for Clark, while Matt Asdornvuttikrai (Winchester, Mass.) and Luke Carter (Brunswick, Maine) also had hits for the Cougars.

Clark (0-3) will return to the diamond on Monday with a doubleheader against Mount Union slated for 3:00 p.m.