The NESCAC Baseball Championship moves to Trinity College. Emerging from last weekend's best-of-three quarterfinal series are two newcomers to the NESCAC postseason in Colby and Hamilton and two teams who have been on this stage before, Amherst and Middlebury.

Colby the No. 2 seed from the East and Hamilton (West No. 2) open championship weekend at 2:30 p.m. at DiBenedetto Stadium on Friday, May 13. Middlebury (West No. 1) and West No. 4 Amherst follow at 6 p.m.

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2022 NESCAC Baseball Championship
Quarterfinal Best-of-Three Series
Day 1: Saturday, May 7
Amherst wins series over Bowdoin, 17-6, 9-2
Colby wins series over Wesleyan, 10-9 (11 inn.), 10-1
Middlebury wins series over Tufts, 4-3, 9-22, 13-1
Hamilton wins series over Trinity, 5-0, 4-6, 4-0

Championship Weekend at Trinity College (double-elimination)
Day 1: Friday, May 13
Game 1: 2:30 p.m. - Hamilton (W2) vs. Colby (E2)
Game 2: 6:00 p.m. - Amherst (W4) vs. Middlebury (W1)
 Day 2: Saturday, May 14
Game 3: 10:30 a.m. - Loser of Game 1 vs. Loser of Game 2
Game 4: 2:00 p.m. - Winner of Game 1 vs. Winner of Game 2
Game 5: 45 minutes after Game 4 - Winner of Game 3 vs. Loser of Game 4
Day 3: Sunday, May 15
Game 6: 10:30 a.m.       Winner of Game 4 vs. Winner of Game 5
Game 7: If necessary, 30 minutes after Game 6 

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Hamilton (18-5) is competing in the NESCAC postseason for the first time after the Continentals finished a team-best second place in the NESCAC West Division and earned the No. 2 seed with a 7-5 divisional mark. Hamilton punched its ticket to the championship weekend with a 2-1 series win over Trinity. The Continentals blanked Trinity, 15-0, in the opening game of the series to earn its first NESCAC postseason victory in program history. Hamilton recorded 19 hits and scored in eight of the nine innings. Gavin Schaefer-Hood picked up the win while Preston Perez earned the save. The duo limited the Bantams to seven hits. In Game 2, Trinity took a 3-0 lead, but Hamilton came back to tie the game up, 4-4. Mike Guanci singled in the seventh to score two runs and push the Bantams back in front, 6-4, and the eventual win. In Game 3, Hamilton pitchers Jackson Sattinger and Jack Eshleman combined for a one-hit shutout in a 4-0 win. Shane Dux led the Hamilton offense, going 3-for-3 with two RBI.

Brady Slinger leads the Continentals at the plate with a .417 average and 1.015 OPS with 50 hits and 26 stolen bases this year. It has been a team effort on the mound as no pitcher has worked more than 39 innings for the Continentals this season. As a staff, Hamilton owns a 4.86 ERA.

Colby (23-11) is making its first appearance in the NESCAC Baseball Championship after posting an 8-4 NESCAC East Divisional record. The Mules swept the Wesleyan Cardinals, the West No. 3 seed, 10-9 (11 inn.) and 10-1, to move onto championship weekend. The Mules used a seven-run second inning to erase a 3-2 deficit and take a 9-3 lead. The Cardinals scored in the third, fourth, and fifth innings to cut the margin down to one, 9-8, and tied the game up in the ninth on a solo homer by Wes Fritch. In the 11th inning, Cabot Maher a walk-off home run, his second round-tripper of the game, to lift the Mules to the win. In the nightcap of the two-game set, the Mules plated 10 runs and limited Wesleyan to one. Jack Bohrer went 6.0 inning, scattered four hits, and did not allow a run to pick up the win to complete the sweep.

Brady O'Brien has a team-best .376 average and a 1.122 OPS while starting all 34 games for Colby. He also leads the team in hits (47), RBI (36), and home runs (5). Bohrer is 4-1 on the mound in eight starts and 29.0 innings of work with 25 strikeouts. Jack Pletter has made 15 appearances with two saves and has struck out 50 batters.

Colby and Hamilton have never met in the NESCAC postseason with this season being the first appearance in the NESCAC Tournament for both teams.

Amherst (16-6-1) won the 2021 NESCAC title after sweeping Tufts in a best-of-three series in the COVID shortened season. The Mammoths swept Bowdoin (East No. 1 seed), 16-7 and 9-2, in the quarterfinal series. Amherst produced 26 runs and 31 hits in the two nine-inning games. In Game 1, the Mammoths led 9-6 and put the game out of reach with eight runs over the final three innings. Chris Murphy went 4-for-6 with two doubles, three RBI, and three runs scored. Nick Giattino earned the win, tossing 5.1 innings. Tyson Luna pitched 3.2 innings of shutout relief, allowing one hit. In Game 2, Amherst built a 3-0 lead after two innings. Bowdoin cut the lead to one, 3-2, but Jacob Ribitzki shut down the Polar Bears and finished a complete-effort scattering seven hits and registering seven strikeouts. Ryan McIntyre went 4-for-6 with an RBI and two runs scored.

Jackson Reydel leads the Mammoths with a .343 batting average and four home runs while Ribitzki has a 5-2 record in nine appearances. He has a 4.07 ERA over 55.1 innings of action. Giattino also has five wins on the bump and a team-high 39 strikeouts.

Middlebury (26-11) advanced out of the quarterfinals with a 2-1 series win over the East No. 4 seed Tufts. The Panthers split the Saturday doubleheader winning the series opener, 4-3, then dropping Game 2, 22-9. Middlebury earned the series win with a 13-1 victory in the deciding Game 3. In Game 1, Middlebury rallied in the bottom of the ninth and Zip Malley's RBI single proved to be the game-winning hit in the 4-3 victory. Tufts scored nine runs on seven hits in the top of the first inning of Game 2, but Middlebury answers with eight runs on five hits in the home half of the third inning. Tufts pushed its lead to 16-8 with a five-run fifth inning and went on to post the 22-9 win and force a deciding game. In Game 3, the Panthers scored runs in six different innings to post a 13-1 victory. Chris Borter went 4-for-4 at the plate with a double, three runs scored, and two RBI. Alec Ritch was the winning pitcher, tossing six innings of one-run, six-hit baseball with six strikeouts.

The Panthers, who own one NESCAC title and have been runner-up twice since 2017, have matched the program's single-season record for wins (26) which was set in both the 2006 and 2009 seasons. Panthers lead nearly every individual hitting category in the NESCAC. Mitchell Schroeder has a league-leading .483 average while John Collins is slugging .782 with a 1.250 OPS and 12 home runs to pace the conference. Alex Price has struck out 70 hitters over 52.1 innings to lead the conference and George Goldstein has a NESCAC-best five saves and 0.98 ERA as a reliever.

Amherst has won five NESCAC titles including two of the last three. The Mammoths and Panthers played a three-game NESCAC West Division series at Middlebury on April 22-23. The Panthers won the series 2-1 behind 16-0 and 5-4 wins. Amherst won the final game of the series, 7-2. The Mammoths are 1-0 against Middlebury in the NESCAC Tournament following a 7-3 victory in the 2011 championship.