Box Score
WILLIAMSTOWN, MA--The Ephs jumped out to an early lead and staved off a late rally by visiting Union to take the game, 6-4.
At the plate, Williams took advantage of five Dutchman errors and scored just one earned run all afternoon en route to the victory. On the mound, Wilson Barr worked a commanding 5 1/3 innings, yielding just one unearned run and earning the win, while Dan Marcet worked the final 2 2/3 innings to snag a save.
Through six innings, Williams had jumped out to a comfortable 5-1 lead, but the Dutchmen made a game of it with three seventh-inning runs before Marcet shut the door.
Steve Maier and Pat Barren each had multi-hit games for the Ephs, and Tom Stephens and Matt Kastner scored twice each.
Maier led off the home half of the first with a triple, and James Allison plated him with a sacrifice fly on the game's next play. Some help from the Union defense kept the momentum going in the second inning for the Ephs as well.
Pat Barren started things with a single up the middle. Tommy Stephens followed him by reaching on a fly ball that the right fielder mishandled, putting runners on second and third with no outs. Third baseman Taylor Mondshein scored Barren with a sacrifice fly. Two batters later, Maier knocked in Stephens. Allison pushed the lead to four runs when his ground ball evaded the glove of the Union second baseman and scored Kastner, who had reached on a walk.
Barr, meanwhile, was not keeping runners off the bases but was certainly keeping them from scoring. After working out of jams in the fourth and fifth innings, he ran into a rough patch in the sixth. An error, a walk, and a single loaded the bases for Union, who then broke onto the scoreboard on catcher Justin Real's RBI single.
With the bases still loaded and one out, Coach Barrale turned to reliever Tommy Hester, replacing Barr with the senior righthander. Hester made his coach look like a genius when he induced a ground ball to Mondshein, who stepped on third and threw to first for the inning-ending double play.
The Ephs responded with a run of their own in the bottom half of the inning. Stephens reached on an error, stole second and advanced to third when the throw scooted into center field. Kastner scored him two batters later with a single to left.
Hester ran into trouble in the seventh, however. Joe Bradlee plated one run with an RBI single, then scored as well when Vincent Esposito roped a triple to center off Marcet, who had entered in relief. Marcet allowed one more hit, an RBI single to Dom Calistro, before a lineout got him out of the inning with Williams still ahead 5-4.
With the bases loaded in the eighth, Williams scored its final run. Cameron Susk grounded one back to the pitcher, who forced out K.C. Murphy at home. Real, though, relayed the throw from the pitcher past the first baseman and into right field, allowing Kastner to score from second.
The win improves Williams' record to 24-10 (5-7 NESCAC), while Union fell to 11-18. The Ephs wrap up their season against MIT this weekend.
