The Middlebury College baseball team has advanced to the NESCAC Championship game after a pair of wins on Saturday. The Panthers will take on the winner of the Bowdoin/Tufts game (played Sunday morning) around 12:30 on Sunday at Bowdoin. The winner of that game will have to defeat the Panthers twice to win the NESCAC Championship. The Panther improve on their school record with 23 wins against nine losses.
Middlebury began its day with a 14-1 win over Tufts at Bates, before traveling south to hand the host school from Bowdoin a 12-10 loss.
In game one against Tufts at Bates, the Panthers led 3-0 in the third inning on Friday when the game was suspended. The advantage was 3-1 in the fifth on Saturday morning when Middlebury tied a tournament record with a seven-run inning, picking up 10 hits in the stanza. John Lanahan had a two run single in the inning, while Gabe Broughton hit a two-run double down the right field line. The Panthers added four runs in the seventh behind a two-run double by Nick Lefeber and a two-run single up the middle by Ryan Armstrong. The lead stood at 14-1 as neither team scored in the final two innings.
Middlebury set a new NESCAC Tournament record with 21 hits in the game, including six doubles. Broughton ended the game 4-4 with three runs scored and two driven in, while Lefeber went 4-5 with three scored and three driven in. Lanahan had three RBI on a 2-5 game, Noah Walker went 2-3 with two RBI, while Joe Ramoin had a pair of doubles.
Jack Britton threw two and a third scoreless innings on Friday, with Steve Shortle throwing the final six and two-thirds innings on Saturday to earn the win.
The hitting continued against Bowdoin as the Panthers pounded out 12 runs on 19 hits, including five doubles, on their way to a 12-10 win over the Polar Bears.
Middlebury struck early, taking a 4-0 lead after the first inning behind a two-run double to left by Ramoin. The Panthers led 5-1 in the third before adding three more runs, two on a single to right by Dom DiDomenico, to take an 8-1 lead. Bowdoin added three of their own in the bottom of the inning before the teams each plated two in the fourth to take it a 10-6 Middlebury lead.
The Panthers gained a little more breathing room in the seventh with an RBI single from Lanahan and a run scoring on a passed ball. Bowdoin answered with three in the seventh and one in the eighth to cut the lead to 12-10. The Polar Bears went quietly in the ninth as the Panthers picked up the win.
Lanahan went 5-5 in the game with three runs scored, while Armstrong with 3-5, scoring three times. Ramoin was 2-6 with three RBI in the contest, while DiDomenico was 2-5 with two RBI.
Matt Joseph earned the win, tossing six and two-thirds innings, striking out nine. Christian Hansen picked up his second save of the season, allowing one unearned run over two and a third innings of work.
