PASADENA, Calif. -- Senior captain Nate Pajka homered in his first at-bat of the season and senior captain Rockwell Jackson added a two-run triple, propelling the Bates College baseball team to a 9-1 season-opening win at Caltech on Monday.

The Beavers (0-6) scored an unearned run off of Bates senior starting pitcher Will Levangie (Frederick, Md.) in the first inning to close the gap to 3-1, then were held scoreless the rest of the way by Levangie and four Bobcat relievers: first-year Connor Russell (Cumberland, Maine), senior Aidan Sullivan (Yarmouth, Maine), first-year Chandler Crans (Camden, Maine) and first-year Andrew Freeman (Newton, Mass.). Levangie retired six Beavers in a row before Russell came on to start the fourth and went two shutout innings, allowing one hit and striking out four to earn the victory.

Pajka (Douglas, Mass.), batting fourth, hit a two-run home run in the first inning, the 11th of his career, after Jackson had already walked and scored when senior captain Mekae Hyde (Lewiston, Maine) reached on an error.

Jackson came up again in the second inning with seniors Sam Berry (Hamilton, Mass.) and John Anagnost (Boulder, Colo.) on base on an error and a walk. Jackson's triple down the left-field line scored Berry and Anagnost for a 5-1 Bates lead.

Caltech stuck with starting pitcher Garrett Levine for eight innings, and the Bobcats reached him for three more runs in the fifth and one more in the sixth. Junior Samuel Warren (Norfolk, Va.) led off the fifth with a single and a stolen base. Hyde walked and both men scored on junior Evan Czopek's (Portland, Ore.) ground-rule double to right-center field. Sophomore Brendan Fox (West Hartford, Conn.) brought Czopek home from third with a single to center.

Jackson doubled down the right-field line to lead off the sixth, reached third on a Warren groundout, and scored on a sacrifice fly to center by Pajka.

Bates plays at Claremont-Mudd-Scripps tomorrow at 5:30 Eastern.