Shortle was rock-solid vs. Plymouth

Author: Andrew Schlegel

The Panthers easily defeated Plymouth State 8-2 on Forbes Field with what Tri-Captain Nick Lefeber '08 described as "good displays of hitting particularly from the bottom of the order, good defense, good pitching from Steve Shortle."

After repeated delays, the weather finally permitted the Middlebury baseball team to play its home-opener. In the first inning, Plymouth State was the first to get on the board. Josh Labossiere doubled to left and Chip Hale drove him in with a single driven up the middle. But Panther starter Steve Shortle '09 stopped the bleeding by striking out the final batter of the inning.

The Panthers responded in the bottom of the first with an equalizing run. Plymouth State let up two walks with two outs, putting runners on base for Mark Shimrock '09. Shimrock came through with a single to center. Tri-Captain Noah Walker '07 scored off the single, giving Shimrock the run batted in.

In the third inning, the Panthers struck again, adding another run off the bat of Shimrock. His RBI double drove in Walker for the second run of the game.

Then, in the fourth inning, the Panthers padded their lead with an additional three runs, giving them the 5-1 lead. Alex Blair '10 drove in Peter Bourdon '09 with an infield single. Gabe Broughton '08 and John Lanahan '08 also got hits, plating two more runs.

The Panthers sealed the 8-2 win with two runs in the fifth and one more in the seventh.

"The offense got great production from the bottom of the order," wrote Walker, "and the team did a great job of just manufacturing runs."

Shortle picked up his first win of the season with a six-inning outing. He struck out four batters and allowed two runs. Joe Brayton suffered the loss for Plymouth State in four innings of work. He allowed five earned runs off of eight hits.

First-year Alex Blair was the hot hitter of the game, going three for three with a pair of runs batted in. Broughton and Shimrock each ended the day with two hits and two runs batted in. For Plymouth State, Labossiere went two for four and Hale went two for three.

The Panthers were supposed to take on Bates this weekend in an away double-header, but because of the snow and rainstorms, the games were postponed until May 6th.

Lefeber said, "everything is coming together and I think we're going to be ready for next weekend's three games at Amherst. It's the biggest weekend of the year and will probably decide if we go to the playoffs."

The Amherst set of games will be exciting, but if the Panthers continue to get good outings from their pitchers and back it up with solid all around hitting and fielding, then they should be able to make another playoff run.