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PITTSFIELD, MA - It was a full day of
festivities at the historic Wahconah Park, culminating in the last
game of the regular season for both the Williams College Ephs and
the Lord Jeffs of Amherst, a game that the Jeffs needed to win to
qualify for the NESCAC tournament. But the Ephs pounded out 14 hits
en route to an 8-5 victory in front a large crowd of parents,
alumni, and an EPSN camera crew that was broadcasting the game live
on ESPN.com
The Ephs close their regular season with an overall record of
24-10, first place in the NESCAC West Division with a 9-3
conference mark. Eph head coach Bill Barrale has now won the NESCAC
West title all three years. Amherst finished the 2009 campaign with
a 16-13 record and a 7-5 posting in the division. This was also the
final game of Jeff head coach Bill Thurston, who compiled a career
record of 811-471-12 in 44 seasons.
"I thought the guys were pretty loose today," said Eph head
coach Bill Barrale. "This was a big game for a lot of reasons but
it's still just one out of thirty-four like any other game. We
weren't very loose the last time we faced these guys and it showed,
but today we went out and had fun."
"We've played here before so we had some experience of what it
would be like," said Eph junior Robin Allemand. "We're a very
cohesive team and that really helps to keep us loose and focused in
games like this."
Freshman reliever Dan Grossman (3-1) was awarded the win,
hurling 5.1 innings, allowing 6 hits,1 earned run, and striking out
4. Senior southpaw Ryan Platzbecker (3-2) took the loss for the
Jeffs struggling in 2.1 innings, surrendering 5 runs on 6 hits and
2 walks.
The scoring began in the bottom of the first, when Amherst's
sophomore leadoff hitter Brian Merrigan tripled to right center and
was brought in by a sacrifice fly off the bat of junior Will
Lawton.
In the next half inning, the Ephs responded in a big way in the
form of a towering home run courtesy of Allemand, which also scored
junior Chad Brown. But Amherst would come right back in the bottom
of the inning after the Jeffs put runners on second and third with
no outs. Merrigan batted in first year John Wagner from third to
knot the score at two.
Again, Williams countered with twice the production in the next
half inning when Cameron Susk tripled to right center, plating both
senior Barrett Allison and junior Al Mathews, who both singled to
get on. Susk then took off for home two pitches later on a suicide
squeeze, and Brown positioned the bunt perfectly for a hit that
scored the fifth Williams run and knocked Platzbecker out of the
game. Sophomore reliever Max McKenna took the hill and pitched out
of the jam.
Grossman took over in the top of the third and gave up his sole
run on a homer to right by senior Brian Powers that made it a 5-3
ballgame. But in timely fashion, the Ephs scored another in the
bottom half when Mathews singled in freshman Stephen Maier with two
outs to push the advantage back to three.
"Our bats were swinging pretty good today and the guys looked
comfortable for the most part at the plate," said Barrale.
"I think the guys were pretty loose in the batter's box today,"
said senior Zach Stone. "The pitchers started to settle in later
on, but I think we had good at-bats all game."
The game remained scoreless until the top of the sixth, after
Allemand blasted a triple to left and Maier drove him in with a
single. On the throw, Maier took second, and Mathews brought in his
second of the game to stretch the lead to 8-3.
The bats remained quiet in this one until the final inning, when
Amherst rallied for two more off senior pinch hitter Mike Neff
homer to center that put the comeback within reach. But freshman
Harry Marino, who came on in the bottom of the eighth for Grossman,
stayed tough and battled for the last two outs and the save.
"We like to run the bases as a team and we came up big on the
base paths in this one," remarked Barrale. "The suicide squeeze was
perfectly done by Brown, and we showed a lot of hustle from start
to finish."
"Grossman was the story of this game," complimented senior
Horowitz. "He did a great job to hold their bats for us and Marino
was fantastic as well.
The Ephs now look forward to a round one NESCAC tournament
matchup at home with Tufts this Friday, the team who knocked them
into the loser's bracket of the tournament last year. Play will
begin at 3PM on Bobby Coombs Field.
Don't forget that the recording of this game will air on EPSN U
tomorrow May 4th at 7PM and again on May 6th
and May 12th at 7PM and 12AM respectively.
It is also worthy to note that Williams won the alumni
reenactment game of the 1859 contest between Amherst and Williams
by a final of 19-17, slightly different from the 73-32 Amherst
victory in the original game. Williams also took the 4-on-4 Chess
Match that was held simultaneously by a score of 3-1 over the Jeffs
to officially sweep the day's events.
Eph chess coach Trevor Murphy noted, "Williams
played Amherst in baseball and chess today
at Wahconah Park in Pittsfield to
commemorate the 150th anniversary of the first
ever US baseball and chess matches.
The first game to finish was
Kevin He on board 3 with a win with white. Andrew Kelly lost
on board 4 with black making the score even. The game was real slow
and slightly closed. When Andrew opened it up, his position
didn't hold. He lost a rook and resigned.
Gordon Atkins then won
on board 2 with black. White had two rooks lined up on the h file
against Gordon's kingside castle. Gordon had a very passed
pawn on the a file against white's queenside castle. Starting
with 90 minutes on the clock, Gordon played thoughtfully until he
had about 15 minutes left. Gordon neutralized White's h file
attack and finished with a little mating combo on the a
file.
Finally, Ty Zhou
finished on board 1 with a win. This final game was won by
accumulating miniscule advantages. The position looked even the
whole game but Ty's opponent was always challenged and used much
more time to stay even until he had less than 5 minutes and
collapsed. In keeping with the theme of playing chess in a ball
park, board one was covered in peanut shell debris the whole
game.
"We played under the
alumni tent and it was good we had the tent, not because of rain,
but a baseball that was fouled over the stands and hit the tent,"
Murphy said. "That could have been a dramatic addition to a chess
game. Spectators interrupted players constantly. ESPN gave out free
hats to the players while they were on move. A photographer asked
for each player's name. People made comments and conversed
with players while the games were going on. The players took it all
in stride."
Look for coverage on
ESPNU, NPR, Sports Illustrated, Williams and Amherst
sites.
