Baseball bashes the ball, beats Bates big

Author: Livingston Burgess

Between one low-scoring pitching gem and one long, messy run-fest, the baseball team picked up a pair of much-needed victories against Bates on Saturday. The day opened appropriately cold, with snow falling in small flurries as Jack Britton '08 froze the Bobcats' bats, hurling a three-hit complete game on the way to a 4-1 win. By the time the sun had come out, both teams warmed up accordingly as they battled back and forth to a final score of 10-9 in favor of Middlebury.

It took the Panthers' tired bats little time to come alive in the first game as they reeled off some textbook hitting. Catcher Nick Lefeber '08 gritted out a leadoff walk and second basement Gabe Broughton '08 fulfilled his two-hole duties with a sharp single ahead of big first baseman Mark Shimrock '09, who brought both home with a shot over the right-field fence.

Thus armed, Britton opened up the day's action at the peak of efficiency, taking a low-count perfect game into the fourth, where he first ran into trouble. A walk, a single and a wild pitch wrecked the perfect game, no-hitter and shutout in quick succession, and Bates threatened to cut even further into the Panther lead, but Britton coaxed a harmless fly and minimized the damage.

That would be the only real opportunity Bates was to get the whole game. Britton went right back to his previous M.O. and wound up fanning six Bobcats.

The nightcap was the reverse of the opener in every way but two - the final victor and Middlebury's penchant for scoring big early. Bates starter Ben Schwartz could not find a rhythm, burying a wild pitch and losing his handle on a borderline passed ball after walking Shimrock to set the table for a run of RBI singles that got Middlebury out of the first up 4-0.

Nick Angstman '11 pitched well early, but good fundamental hitting by Bates eventually got the better of him in the third, and he tired in the fifth as the Bobcats pulled ahead. Clutch hitting from Shimrock and Erich Enns '10, much to the delight of Enns' substantial cheering section, gave the Panthers a lead they carried into the seventh to hand to Donald McKillop '11.

The first-year opened shakily, walking three and loading the bases in the final frame, but he got a big pickup from third baseman John Lanahan's '08 force-out at the plate and settled down to record a nerve-racking last two outs.

Though the wins do not go into the conference column, being played outside the NESCAC's West division, they gave the Panthers a big morale boost and brought them close to the .500 mark.

For his efforts over the weekend and otherwise, Shimrock garnered NESCAC Player of the Week honors. In Middlebury's four wins, Shimrock raked for a .538 average and a jaw-dropping 1.724 on base plus slugging percentage. After a mid-week matchup with St. Michael's, he and his comrades will take on division leader Amherst in a three-game set over the weekend with the knowledge that a loss will likely end their already slight hope for a postseason berth.