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Score
Freshman Andrew Bishop hit a two-run single down the third
baseline to give the Ephs their first lead of the game and cap a
four run eighth inning. Despite a strong performance by starter
Paul Burgdorf '10, the Ephs trailed the entire game until that
point. Hamilton jumped out to a lead early when Joe Buicko hit a
lead-off homer, but struggled to put runs on the board after that.
The Ephs used strong pitching and a big eighth inning to win game 1
of the three game series on a rainy afternoon in Williamstown.
The Continentals had a strong first inning. Buicko hit the
first pitch he saw over the left field wall. After a fly-out to
right, back to back singles put runners on base. The Ephs
missed on a chance to get out of the inning when they couldn't turn
a double play on a ground ball to the shortstop. A fielder's
choice scored another run before the Ephs could register the final
out.
Williams struggled to put runners on base against Hamilton
starter Dan Kroening. Kroening held the Ephs to one hit
through three innings. The Ephs finally got their offense
going in the fourth. Pat Barren '11 drew a one-out walk and
advanced to third when Robin Allemand '10 hit a double down the
left field line. Catcher Chad Brown '11 then scored both
runners on a deep single to left that brought the Ephs back to
within one.
The Ephs had another opportunity in the fifth after a leadoff
double by Bishop and a walk by third baseman Taylor Mondshein '13
put two runners on to start the inning. Stephen Maier '12
laid down a great sacrifice bunt to advance the runners, but the
Ephs were unable to bring them home.
After a rough start, Burgdorf settled in and shut down the
Hamilton lineup. Burgdorf gave up two earned runs on nine
hits over six and a third innings, while striking out six and
walking one. Sophomore Danny Grossman took over for Burgdorf
in the seventh, picking up the victory by pitching one and two
thirds innings, while allowing one run on two hits.
Trailing 4-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning the
Ephs found their bats. James Allison '11 and Mathews led off
the inning with back to back singles. Allison advanced to
third on a wild pitch and then scored when Hamilton reliever Alex
Augustyn threw a pickoff attempt out of play. Barren then hit
a clutch single to score Mathews and tie the game. Allemand
kept the streak alive, hitting a single up the middle to advance
the go ahead run into scoring position. Brown then laid down
a perfect sacrifice bunt that turned into an infield hit when he
beat out the throw to load the bases with nobody out. The hit
set the stage for Bishop's heroics. The freshman crushed a
ball just inside of third base to score two and put the Ephs on top
for the first time in the game.
Head Coach Bill Barrale was excited to get the win: "Baseball's
a funny game. We were hitting the ball hard early, but
couldn't get any runs. We got a couple of clutch hits in a
row there in the eighth and it was great to come away with the
victory."
Williams turned to first-year Jimmy Ray to close out the game
and he did not disappoint. Ray was dominant, retiring all
three batters he faced while registering two strikeouts: "Jimmy
[Ray] did a great job coming in and shutting the door. That's
the second time this year he's taken over like that."
Barrale noted the Ephs' knack for scoring runs late in games:
"We've been here before. It's something I addressed in
Arizona, that we need to score more early, but somehow we seem to
get down and then find a way to score runs late in games."
Barrale was especially pleased by the play of Chad Brown:
"He's a guy who had never played catcher before he got here and
he's playing great. He threw a guy out stealing and made a
great play to pick a guy off at first."
Mathews, Barren, Allemand, and Bishop led the Ephs with two hits
each. Kevin Prindle, meanwhile, had three hits for Hamilton.
The two teams conclude their series tomorrow when they play a
doubleheader at Bobby Coombs Field starting at 1 PM.
