Under balmy 70-degree Georgia skies, the Middlebury men’s baseball team opened its 2025 campaign with a sobering reality check, dropping all three games to a battle-tested Emory University squad. The defending NESCAC champions showed clear signs of off-season rust as they were overwhelmed 19–5 and 12-2 in Saturday’s doubleheader, before falling 5–3 in a more competitive Sunday contest.
The Panthers struggled to find their feet on both sides of the diamond throughout the weekend. In the first game, Emory jumped out to a 3–0 lead in the first inning. Middlebury showed life when catcher Joe Basso ’27 drove two runs home with a single in the second. The game stayed within reach until Emory blew it open with six runs in the third and ran away with the game.
In the second contest, Anthony Pellagrin ’27 opened the scoring with a homer to left field. Emory responded with six straight before Pellegrin knocked another one over the left-field fence, capping an incredible game for the sophomore. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to overcome Emory’s explosive offense, as they cruised to another victory.
Sunday’s game was much closer. Infielder Aiden Han ’27 drove home a pair of runs to make it 2–1 in the second, giving Middlebury its first lead of the series. However, the advantage was short-lived: Two unearned runs and a double allowed Emory to take a 4–2 advantage by the third inning. The Panthers pulled a run back in the seventh on a sacrifice fly, but the comeback bid stalled there.
Contrasting levels of preparation told the story for the weekend. Emory had already played 10 preseason games before the clash against Middlebury, while the Panthers had their first outdoor practice just last Wednesday once the unrelenting cold and snowy weather at Middlebury had finally abated.
Although this weekend was hardly an ideal start for the Panthers, there’s no reason to hit the panic button. The team, coached by the experienced Mike Leonard, remains an athletic group with a lot of recent winning experience.
“I have full confidence in our group,” Leonard wrote to The Campus. “Our goal is to be playing meaningful games in May. Even though the results aren’t what we were hoping for this weekend, these games give us an opportunity to learn and will hopefully make us a better team down the road.”
The Panthers are navigating a period of transition after 23 players graduated over the past two seasons. The roster features 12 new freshmen, including an especially promising pitcher Reed Hyde ’28.
"We’re going to have to battle [and] learn. We won't be perfect from the start,” he told me frankly during an interview at the Grille.
Whatever the team might lack in experience, it more than makes up for in work ethic. “Almost every second of the day, you can go into the field house, and in the back corner somebody will be throwing, hitting, stretching,” said Hyde, who has played baseball since age four and was immediately struck by the dedication of his teammates when he arrived on campus. “I need to start working harder, otherwise it’ll be tough to get on the field.”
The team is also led by an impressive group of upperclassmen. Co-captain Justin Lessing ’25 is coming off a season where he was named a Fourth Team All-American and won NESCAC Pitcher of the Year honors. Fellow senior and co-captain Kyle McCausland ’25 was a Third Team All-American in 2023. And, perhaps the most underrated factor: the team has significant winning experience after being crowned NESCAC champions in 2022 and 2024.
Coach Leonard will lean on his veteran core to guide the team forward.
“We have really strong leadership on the team, a lot of pitching depth, and a high level of athleticism,” he noted. “While we lack experience, I think that we’ll learn quickly as a group and believe that our strong leadership will help keep the team together even when we struggle like we have this weekend.”
One of the greatest aspects of baseball is that its lengthy season with many opportunities for improvement. Although each game holds significance, there’s plenty of room to make mistakes and atone for them accordingly throughout the season. For instance, on the morning of June 3 last season, the New York Mets were 11 games under .500 at 24–35. They finished 89–73, with an exhilarating trip to the National League Championship series. The slow start for the Panthers is no meaningful indication for how the rest of the year will unfold.
Middlebury won’t have much time to dwell on the disappointing opening series, as they return to Vermont for Tuesday's home opener against Colby-Sawyer College. The forecast for game day is currently a 40-degree high, a far cry from sundrenched Georgia, but maybe some more familiar weather is exactly what the team needs.
Correction 3/6/25: A previous version of this article incorrectly attributed part of a quote to Mike Leonard. The quote has been updated to reflect his statement correctly.
