Baseball struggles in tough weekend vs. Bowdoin

The Bowdoin Polar Bears swept the Panthers’ baseball team last weekend, and as a result, Middlebury dropped to 5-11 on the year. Last week marked the first home action for the Panthers on the season, as they opened play at Forbes Field with a 10-7 loss to Castleton State before beating Plymouth State by a score of 15-7 last Wednesday. Bowdoin, coming off a series win over fourth-ranked Trinity, proved to be a much more formidable challenge for the Panthers, who lost all three weekend games by scores of 7-3, 21-6, and 14-13.

“It was definitely a disappointing series,” said sophomore pitcher Dirk Van Duym ’12. “There’s not a whole lot else to say besides that.”

In game one of the series, Middlebury pulled within one run in the bottom of the second inning on a Joe Conway ’13 home run and a Joey Liberator ’11 walk with the bases loaded, but were unable to pull ahead as the Polar Bears added three more runs in their half of the sixth inning on their way to the victory. Game two was a Bowdoin rout from start to finish, as they led 17-2 after four innings en route to scoring 21, their highest scoring total in four years.

“Game two was one of those games that just snowballed,” said Matt Wassel ’12. “One thing led to another and suddenly we were down big.” Conway and fellow first-year Michael Morris ’13 had two RBIs apiece in the game, leading the Panthers in that category. The third and final outing of the series was a wild, back-and-forth affair, with the outcome in doubt up until the final at-bat. Middlebury trailed 4-3 going into the bottom of the fifth, when they erupted for seven runs courtesy of two sacrifice flies from Erich Enns ’10 and Tyler Wark ’12 and RBI singles from Peter Baumann ’10 and Thomas Driscoll ’13.

The offensive explosion put the Panthers ahead 10-4 with four innings to play, but Bowdoin struck back in the seventh with their own seven-run inning to go ahead 11-10. After Driscoll doubled home the tying run in the bottom of the seventh, recording his second RBI of the game, the teams went scoreless in the eighth before the Polar Bears opened up a 14-11 lead in the top of the ninth.

The Middlebury half of the inning was a tense, dramatic affair, as Conway led off with a single and was followed by another single from Andrew Lind ’13. Driscoll added a third consecutive single, driving home a run in the process. Lind would eventually score on a wild pitch after Wark sacrificed him to third base, cutting the score to just one run. However, with the tying run on third and just one out, Wassel struck out and Donny McKillop ’11 grounded out to second, ending the Panthers’ comeback effort.

“The third game was really tough,” said Van Duym. Baumann finished the game with three RBIs, and Driscoll had four hits. One bright spot of the weekend was the return of leadoff hitter Wark, who leads the team in batting average at .462 after missing half the season with a shoulder injury. Next weekend, the Panthers will play Amherst at home, a crucial series in which Middlebury will look to improve its record in league play and potential playoff standing for the NESCAC tournament.
“When you play a season as short as ours, you understand the gravity of every game,” said Wassel. “Having Amherst coming in this weekend is a good medicine for us right now. They are a solid team and big rivals of ours. It’s crucial that we are playing our best baseball when we start the series this weekend.”