The Middlebury baseball team rallied from a 5-4 deficit in Friday's sixth inning to earn an 8-6 win over Hamilton. The contest was the opener of a three-game NESCAC West series at Forbes Field. 
 
HIGHLIGHTS

• The Panthers grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when John Collins blasted a home run over the center-field fence.
• Collins increased the Middlebury advantage to 3-0 in the third. Sammy Smith laced a one-out single down the left-field line, scoring on Collins' second homer of the contest to straight-away center.
• The Continentals cut the deficit to 3-1 in the fifth. Shane Dux was hit by a pitch and later touched home on a fielder's choice groundout.
• Later in the inning, the visitors threatened with two outs and runners on first and third, but Panther pitcher Justin Lessing won an 11-pitch at-bat to get out of the jam.
• The Panthers pushed the edge back to three (4-1) in the bottom half of the fifth. Andrew Gough roped a stand-up triple to right center and scored on a Hamilton fielding miscue.
• In the sixth, the Continentals took a 5-4 edge with four runs on just one hit, while drawing four walks. The big blow came off the bat of Taylor Kaufman, who smacked a bases-clearing double off the bottom of the wall in left field to score three.
• Middlebury responded with three runs of its own in the seventh to take the lead for good. Collins tied the game at 5-5 with a bloop single to right center scoring Smith who doubled. With the bases loaded, Mitchell Schroeder was hit by a pitch and Nathan Samii walked to give the hosts a 7-5 lead.
• The Panthers tallied a run in the eighth as Smith tripled and scored on a seeing-eye single through the right side by Gough.
• Hamilton loaded the bases in the top of the ninth with one out, pulling to within two (8-6) on a fielder's choice groundout to score Phil Bernstein. Middlebury pitcher Alex Price induced a fly ball to left to earn the save and lift the Panthers to an 8-6 victory.

NOTES

• The save was the first of Price's career. He also recorded a strikeout in his inning of work, moving him into fourth place in program history with 168.
• Henry Gustavson picked up the win on the mound, tossing 2.1 innings while allowing no runs on one hit with a strikeout. 
• Collins picked up his NESCAC-best eighth and ninth homers during the win. He also tied a season-high total with four RBI.
• Middlebury and Hamilton played for the 73rd time with the Panthers possessing a 56-17 advantage. Middlebury has won six of the last seven contests with the Continentals.

The teams return to action on Saturday with a doubleheader slated to start at 12:00 p.m.