Before opening day this season, before the first pitch and the first rained-out series and the first grudge match against Williams, I asked sophomore pitcher Dirk van Duym ’12 about the team’s expectations of themselves for the coming season. Van Duym responded by saying that the team would be very disappointed with anything less than a .500 record for the year.
A .500 record would have been a vast improvement over the last two season’s outcomes, which have been mediocre, to say the least. Flash forward two months, where, 27 games later, Middlebury baseball sits at 10-17, their worst finish since winning the NESCAC crown in 2006.
“We feel pretty disappointed in our overall performance this season, especially considering the remarkable talent we had,” said pitcher Peter Kinchley ’12.
“I think the main thing that prevented us from being successful was our lack of consistency in all three areas of the game.”
The team this year was exceptionally young, and youthful inexperience often translated into inconsistent performances on the diamond. Last weekend, the Panthers seemed to find some sort of redemption in the season, beating Hamilton two games out of three for their only NESCAC series win of the season.
They carried that success into last Friday, when they beat Amherst 5-0 in one of their most complete games of the season and brought their NESCAC record to .500, with a chance to finish well above that with four conference games remaining.
However, after dropping two games the next day to the the Lord Jeffs at home, they managed only four hits in two games at Tufts on Sunday, wasting two excellent pitching performances by Tyler Buckingham ’13 and Will Baine ’12. This uncharacteristic lack of offensive production (the Panthers hit .305 as a team on the season) was almost as surprising as the equally uncharacteristic solid pitching, as the team will finish the season with an ERA of 7.65 despite late recent success on the rubber.
The dichotomy exhibited in the final series against Tufts was a microcosm of the series as a whole; the team was at times brilliant, beating nationally-ranked Southern Main 10-6, and at times less so, allowing Bowdoin more runs than they had scored in four years in a 21-6 loss.
“While at times we were able to be successful in all phases of the game, other times we would have solid or even stellar performances in one area but come up short in others,” said Kinchley of the Panther’s season.
The good news for Middlebury baseball is that they will return 23 players next year, many of whom were some of the top contributors to this season’s team.
Tri-captain Donnie McKillop ’11 led the squad with a .423 batting average, and first-year Joe Conway ’13 provided the brunt of the team’s power, hitting five home runs and leading the team in RBIs with 29.
Both McKillop and Conway will join a young pitching nucleus that, despite struggles this year, should be much improved next year with a season of experience under their belts.
Van Duym led the team in ERA this season, allowing only 1.17 runs per contest in limited action, and Baine overcame a rough start to post numbers more on par with his tremendous level of talent towards the end of the year. Nick Angstman ’11 figures to anchor the rotation next year, finishing this season with an ERA of 8.39 that is not indicative of the consistency he gave to the staff throughout most of the season.
One player that the Panthers will miss will be graduating tri-captain center fielder Erich Enns ’10.
Enns, who broke the all time Middlebury stolen base record this past week, will also finish his career as the leader in walks and tied for the school lead in triples and home runs. Joining him on graduation day will be tri-captain infielder Danny Seymour ’10, first baseman/catcher Peter Baumann ’10 and pitcher Matt Lowes ’10, the last remaining members of the NESCAC championship team from four years ago, Middlebury’s last taste of baseball success.
“It was tough to walk off the field for the last time on Sunday, but I think the wonderful thing about college sports is that you are able to track the legacy you leave behind,” said Baumann, who will surely be checking the box scores next season, along with the other seniors who will be moving on.
It will be up to McKillop, Conway, Angstman and the rest of the team next year to get Middlebury baseball back to the proverbial promised land of postseason baseball.
“I think this team has the potential to be very good next year,” said Baumann.
“They are going to be in a very successful position to be moving forward.”
Next year’s team will have the talent, but they will have to prove to themselves that they have the mettle.
Baseball ends season with losses at Tufts
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