The Amherst men’s baseball team spent the weekend at Middlebury College looking to secure a spot in the NESCAC Championships. The top two teams from both the NESCAC West and NESCAC East divisions will meet at Trinity College, which will host the tournament as the winners of the East division, on May 9.
In the first game of last weekend’s series against Middlebury, the Jeffs were done in by poor defense. The usually solid Amherst field struggled right from the beginning, letting in seven runs in the second inning, followed by four more in the third. By the end of the third inning the Jeffs had already committed three errors. Letting in early runs has been a trend for Amherst this season, but the Jeffs were unable to come back as they have in so many previous games.
Despite the defensive lapses that plagued the team on Friday, the consensus among the team is that the game was more of an aberration than anything else. “We are ok defensively, said junior outfielder Agnus Schaller. “The errors were in large part due to playing on a very hard, dry field. The ball gets on you quicker, and takes tougher hops. It isn’t likely to be a factor in the future as most fields in New England are pretty soft.”
The Jeffs started slowly once again Saturday morning as they trailed the Panthers 7-1 by the end of the fourth inning. In a rare start sophomore pitcher Teddy Blank, who had been strong out of the bullpen all season long, was unable to stop the Middlebury offense.
First-year and rookie pitcher Max McKenna relieved Blank in the fourth inning and was able to stop the damage, getting out of the fourth inning without allowing any additional runs and then pitching two more shut-out innings.
“When I come into a game when we’re behind, I just try to keep the mentality that I need to keep us in the game to give our offense a chance to come back. I need to keep the score where it is. Scoring runs late is something that we’ve been doing all year, because the whole team has the mindset that we’re still in the game, no matter what the score is,” said McKenna.
In the top of the fifth inning the Jeffs mounted the comeback that McKenna expected. Without the benefit of a home run, Amherst put five runs on the board to cut the Middlebury lead to only one run. Then in the final inning of the game, Amherst added two more runs grabbing an 8-7 lead. Fellow first-year Jeff Keenan was called in to pitch the final inning. Keenan let the leadoff man reach base and hit one batter, but was able to preserve the lead to pick up his first collegiate save.
The excitement from the win in the first game of the Saturday double header carried over into the afternoon. “We definitely carried some momentum out of the first win this weekend to the second game,” said Schaller. “Coming back in the top of the ninth to mathematically eliminate Middlebury from NESCACs was a lot of fun, and killed their spirits as much as it helped ours.”
Keenan, who got the start in the final game of the weekend series, took the mound in the bottom of the first already with a five-run lead. He pitched five and two-thirds innings and only allowed a single earned run. The Jeffs’ offense was powered by Neal Allar ’07 and Schaller, who combined for four runs and eight RBIs. Both Allar and Schaller hit a home run, their fourth and sixth, respectively. By the end of the game, Amherst had put up 14 runs to take the final game of the series 14-8.
Finishing the weekend 2-1 ensures the Jeffs at least a second-place finish in the NESCAC West and a spot as one of the two teams representing the division in the NESCAC Championships to be played at Trinity, the winner of the East division, beginning May 9.
The Jeffs returned to the field yesterday, as they defeated Brandeis University by a score of 10-6 on the road. First-year pitcher Ryan Healy earned the victory for the Jeffs, pitching three scoreless innings. Amherst displayed fine defense, making only one error and turning three double plays.
On the other side, the Jeffs took advantage of defensive mistakes by Brandeis. Of the ten runs that Amherst put on the board, only five were earned. Senior catcher Josh Card and first-year outfielder Brian Merrigan led the way at the top of the order, combining for a total of three runs, three hits, and three runs batted in. Second baseman Michael Neff ’09 and third baseman Brendan Powers ’09 each added two hits.
The Jeffs have one more conference game—a final clash against Williams. A win will lock up the division title for Amherst and allow them to avoid the undefeated Trinity Bantams in the opening round of the NESCAC Championship.