Rain Washes Twinbill, Hope of .500 Season Away for Baseball

Author: David Lindholm

After a split double-header against Castleton College on Saturday, Mother Nature threw a wicked curve ball to the Middlebury baseball team last weekend, as the seniors on the team missed what were to have been their last two home games of the season. Forecasts of rain and snow forced an end to Sunday's double-header against NESCAC powerhouse Trinity College. The Panthers had been poised for a four-game, action-packed weekend against solid teams, but the weather managed to rain on the parade of the team's seven seniors.

Although the Panthers were not able to play on Sunday, they can look to the fact that they, as a team, have greatly improved over the past week, yielding a four win, two loss record over that span. Middlebury ace and senior Tyler Conrad was able to throw one final home game, and he made the most of it, coming up with the win in Saturday's first Castleton game by allowing five runs over seven innings and striking out nine batters in the contest.

While Conrad kept the Castleton hitters in check, the Panthers launched an offensive of their own. Led by the bat of Dan Colonno '02, who had two hits and two RBI, as well as Craig Hanson '03, who had two runs scored, the Panthers were able to put runs on the board at key points in the game. The Spartans took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, but by the fourth, the Panthers had tied the game back up, only to find themselves trailing again in the fifth, this time by a score of 5-4. The sixth inning was critical, as Middlebury rallied for the final three runs of the game, as the score rested at 7-5.

"It was good to get a win for the seniors, especially during one of our last home games of the season," said first baseman Hanson. "I was glad to contribute any way I could."

In game two of the double-header, the Panther pitching remained solid but the hitting was simply nowhere to be found as the Panthers were shut out, 3-0. Middlebury was only able to muster up four hits in the game, two by Richard Hightower '04, and thus it was impossible for first-year pitcher Russell Budnick's seven inning, five hit, five strikeout performance to earn the win.

After an up-and-down season, Middlebury now has to close out the campaign with four games on the road. The team first travels for a nine-inning game at St. Michael's College on Wednesday, facing a struggling Purple Knight squad that has lost four of their last five and holds a 10-11 overall record. Then, over the weekend, the Panthers face two Eastern Division NESCAC foes; Bates on Saturday and Bowdoin on Sunday. The teams sit third and fourth, respectively, out of five teams in the NESCAC Eastern division, both with losing records within and outside of the league. The Panthers will be trying for two wins to close out a tough year.

As head coach Bob Smith reported last week, the team's 10-14 record is somewhat deceiving, with the team having lost many close games. "We're a run away from beating" such perennially strong teams as Wesleyan, Williams and Amherst, Smith commented, and thus taking the third, and tie-breaking game in each series. Though the team's chance for a .500 season was washed out by the rain, the team has improved by leaps and bounds this year, and shows flashes of brilliance in every game. If the team can put it all together this weekend, they should leave Maine with the satisfaction of having finished the season on a high note.

— Neil Onsdorff contributed to the reporting in this article.