GOODYEAR, Ariz. – Carlo Pizzano and Mike Crowley are tied for fourth and seventh, respectively, after the first day of the Loyola Intercollegiate, and the Greyhounds finished the opening 18 holes in second place at Palm Valley Golf Club.
 
Pizzano birdied two of his final four holes to finish at 2-under 70, while Crowley ended up a shot back with a 1-under 71.
 
Matt Malits and Connor McGarrity both shot 2-over 74, and James Rico was at 3-over 75 to build Loyola's 1-over 289 as a team. Gustavo Rangel made his collegiate debut on Sunday as an individual and shot 5-over 77.
 
Loyola is two shots back of first-day leader Marquette, which shot a 1-under 287. The Greyhounds are two shots in front of Wright State and Utah Valley.
 
Pizzano teed off in the shotgun start on the sixth hole, and he got to 2-under after six holes with a birdie on the 540-yard, par-5 11^th. He had three bogeys and a birdie through the rest of the back nine, and he was even after a par on the course's first hole, his 14^th of the day.
 
He then birdied the par-5 second and par-4 third holes before a pair of pars to finish his round at 2-under.
 
Crowley started on the fifth hole and was 3-under after seven with birdies on the ninth, 10^th and 11^th holes, but he bogeyed the 13^th to fall back to 2-under. He then eagled the par-5 14^th hole to move to 4-under, but he had bogeys on his next two holes and then a double on the 18^th.
 
The junior got back to red numbers with a birdie on the second hole and closed his day with pars on three and four.
 
Malits and McGarrity both finished their days strong with red numbers among their closing holes. Malits rolled in a birdie on the fifth, and McGarrity closed his day with one on the sixth.
 
Loyola will be back in action with the tournament's other 19 teams on Monday with a 7:45 a.m. (MST) shotgun start.