The Middlebury baseball team dropped to 0-5 following a 14-13 high-scoring game to Oberlin during its spring break trip on Monday afternoon in Arizona at the Kino Sports Complex. The Panthers jump back into play on Tuesday with a single game against Grace (Neb.) scheduled to begin at 3:00 p.m.

Middlebury jumped out to an early lead with four runs on four base hits in the top of the first. Dylan Sinnickson was hit by a pitch and moved to second on Max Araya's single up the middle. John Luke roped a double to right center field, plating Sinnickson and moving Araya to third. After a strikeout, Raj Palekar tripled to right field, scoring Araya and Luke. Drew Coash brought home the fourth run with a single up the middle, scoring Palekar.

In the bottom of the inning, Oberlin cut the Middlebury lead to one, scoring three runs, two of them unearned, on just two base hits.

The score remained that way until the top of the fourth, as the Panthers brought across six runs on just two hits as the Yeomen pitching staff surrendered four walks. Coash had a sacrifice fly to score Luke who induced a leadoff base on balls, while Johnny Read had an RBI groundout to bring home Palekar who reached on a fielder's choice. With two outs, Sinnickson and Araya had back-to-back two-run hits. Sinnickson doubled to left center, while Araya singled up the middle.

The Yeomen pulled to within six (10-4) in the bottom of the fourth on an RBI walk from Kyle Decker. In the top of the fifth, the Panthers increased the lead to eight at 12-4 when Coash ripped a double to center scoring Palekar and Joe MacDonald.   

Down by eight runs, the Yeomen began to chip away at the deficit scoring a run in the fourth, three in both the fifth and sixth innings, a run in the seventh and two in the eighth to knot the game at 13-13. In the top of the sixth, the Panthers scored their 13th run of the game when Luke touched home following a throwing error on a single off the bat of Palekar.

Tied at 13-13 headed to the bottom of the ninth, Oberlin's Brian Hemmert brought home the winning run when he singled to center with the bases loaded and nobody out, allowing Josh Newborn to score. Newborn was inserted as a pinch-runner earlier in the inning.

As a team, the Panthers racked up a season-best 17 hits, including six players with multi-hit efforts. Sinnickson ended his day 3-4 including a pair of doubles with two runs scored and two RBI, while Palekar went 3-5 with three runs and the triple. Coash ended up 2-5 with four RBI, while Brendan Donohue was 2-3 and Luke went 1-3 with three walks and three runs.

Ryan Bliss led the Yeomen offense going 3-4 with three RBI, two runs scored and a triple, while Justin Cruz was 2-4 with a double and four runs scored.

Mark Dickerson suffered the loss, as the Panthers utilized five different pitchers in the contest. Milo Sklar tallied the win for Oberlin, logging the final three innings and allowing just two hits. The Yeomen staff sent a total of six pitchers to the mound in the win.