Baseball salvages shreds of dignity

In what has been a season of extreme highs and lows for Middlebury baseball, the outlook has turned up for the moment. The team took two of three from the Hamilton Continentals last weekend, notching its first NESCAC series win this year.

The Panthers won the first and third games of the three-game set, while Hamilton picked up its first NESCAC conference win in the second contest.

“We knew coming into the season that we were capable of playing like this, but this weekend was our first sustained effort,” said first-year Joe Conway ’13. “Even when we got behind we battled back, and that is a huge sign of improvement.”

Matt Lowes ’10 turned in one of the finest pitching performances the team has seen in the first game as he continues to provide some consistency for a pitching staff that has struggled all season, with the team ERA hovering around eight runs allowed per game. Lowes went six innings, allowing just four hits and one run, and struck out three Hamilton batters in picking up the 13-1 win.

He was helped by a lineup that lit up the scoreboard as it has been doing all season. Donnie McKillop ’11 and Joey Liberator ’11 had three RBIs apiece, and Erich Enns added two more. The combo of McKillop and Enns has proven lethal all season for opposing pitchers, hitting .442 and .380, respectively, and making major contributions to an offense that is hitting .314 as a team on the year.

The offense was potent again in the second game, putting up seven runs, five of which were driven in by Peter Baumann ’10, who hit a grand slam in the seventh.

However, the pitching was not nearly as reliable this go-around, as starter Nick Angstman ’11 was touched up for 11 earned runs in five innings of work, seven of which came in the Hamilton half of the third inning, putting the Panthers in a hole that they could not climb out of in the later innings.

The third game of the series was another slugfest. Middlebury led 7-1 after three innings and never looked back on their way to a 20-8 win. Murphy McCurdy ’12 had the best game of his Middlebury career, going four-for-four and scoring four runs and Zach Roeder ’12 homered twice and drove in six runs.

Conway continued to make his case for team Rookie of the Year, as he went four-for-four with three RBIs, bringing his total to 23 on the season, leading all other Middlebury batsmen. John Wiet ’13 picked up his first career win as a Panther after going six innings and striking out two.

Only games against NESCAC west opponents count in the conference standings so the Panthers were able to improve their conference record to 4-5 and have a chance to finish above .500 in conference play if they can win at least two this weekend against Amherst, their last home series of the season.

“We may be out of playoff contention now, but we are going to go out and compete. We want to go out strong, and give the seniors a memorable final weekend of college baseball,” said Conway.