The Middlebury baseball team (23-9) saw its five-game winning streak come to an end, dropping an 18-5 decision to Mitchell (25-10) in a matchup of regionally-ranked teams. The Panthers are ranked third in Region 1 in the latest NCAA rankings, while the Mariners are #3 in Region 2. Middlebury wraps up the regular-season portion of its schedule on Tuesday with a contest at Castleton beginning at 4:00 p.m.
The Panthers struck early with four runs on five hits in the top of the first inning.
Beau Root led off with his first career triple to left-center field, before scoring on
Alec Ritch's seventh home run of the season.
Andrew Ashley followed with a base hit to center and scampered around to touch home on a ground-rule double from
John Collins for a 3-0 lead.
Jack Stolper plated Collins on a run-scoring single up the middle for the 4-0 lead.
The Mariners got on the board with a single run in the bottom of the frame, as Bo Yaworski ripped a homer down the right-field line. Matt Falk made it a 4-2 game an inning later with a roundtripper to center.
Mitchell pulled to within one (4-3) in the third when Angel Galindez started things with a walk, stole second and scored on a single to right center by Yaworski.
The hosts grabbed the lead for good with four tallies in the bottom of the fourth. Robbie DelaCruz drove home a pair of runs with a triple to right center, before eventually scoring on a passed ball for a 6-4 advantage. Yaworski increased the difference to three (7-4) with his second homer of the game, clearing the wall in left center.
The Mariners added a run in the fifth, two in the sixth and sixth more tallies in the seventh for a 16-4 lead.
The Panthers recorded their final run of the contest in the eighth when Collins lifted a triple to right and scored on a sacrifice fly by
Chris Borter.
Mitchell tacked on two runs in the bottom of the eighth for the final 18-5 tally.
Collins went 2-4 with a double and a triple and two runs scored, while Root was 2-2 with a triple and scored a run. Ritch reached base safely in his 28th-straight contest with his first-inning homer and stole a base to give him 50 for his career.
Sawyer Duarte (1-1) took the loss for the Panthers, giving up seven runs on five hits over the first 3.2 innings.
Falk paced the Mitchell offense with a 3-4 day at the plate with a trio of homers, three runs scored and six RBI. Dougie DelaCruz was 3-5 with a double, drove in three runs and scored twice, while Hunter Yaworski also had three hits (3-5) including a double, scored twice and had three RBI. Daniel Driscoll (5-0) picked up the win in relief for the hosts, allowing just one run on one hit in 4.1 innings of work with five strikeouts.
