WILLIAMSTOWN, MASS. -- The Williams College baseball team (6-4) split its last doubleheader of the 2021 regular season with the visiting Wesleyan Cardinals (5-5), winning the first game 6-3 and dropping the second game 6-2. The first contest at Bobby Coombs Field featured a tense pitchers' duel until a late offensive surge by the Ephs in the sixth inning. In the latter game, Wesleyan rode its starting pitching to come back from an early deficit and secured a 6-2 win.
With both teams battling a windy Saturday afternoon, Cardinals second-baseman Adam Geibel opened the day with a sharp comebacker that hit starting pitcher
Sean Hogan's glove. Geibel's single would be the only hit for the first five innings of the game as Hogan held the Cardinals scoreless for five frames while Wesleyan starting pitcher Coleton Reitan maintained a no-hit bid until the sixth inning.
The Cardinals threatened to score in the top of the fourth inning when Geibel followed up his first-inning single with another single — the only hits of the game up until that point. However, his jam-shot down the third-base line failed to do any damage when he was doubled-up on an attempted steal after clean-up hitter Kyle Sylvester lined into the glove of first-year
Mike Giove.
In the following frame, the Ephs put the first run on the board with a combination of smart base-running and defensive mistakes. First-year
Kurt Oelschlager led off the inning with a four-pitch walk and proceeded to advance on a passed ball. Senior
Erik Mini drove a deep fly ball to advance Oelschager to third base until catcher Jimmy Clifford allowed a fastball to hit the backstop. Oelschlager raced home to make the game 1-0.
The Cardinals answered with two runs as Geibel continued his streak of timely hitting by ending his eight-pitch at-bat with a fly ball to right field that barely popped out of Giove's glove, aided by the roaring wind in the outfield. Hogan struck out Sylvester to strand Geibel at third to end the frame, one of his 10 punch-outs on the day.
The Ephs responded the bottom of the sixth to the Cardinals' no-hit bid with a five-run explosion on three hits. Pappas led off the frame with a walk, advancing to second on a passed ball — one of four Cardinals passed balls in the game. Oelschlager took advantage of the mistake by blasting a fly ball to the warning track for an RBI double to cut the score in half to 2-1. The comeback effort continued when a fastball hit the edge of Clifford's catcher's mitt and rolled to the backstop, allowing Oelschlager to move to third. Another passed ball gave Oelschlager the opportunity to score and even the game. Mini and Cohn walked, and the defensive mistakes by the Cardinals culminated when
Nate Orluk drove a fly ball to the right center gap to record a two-run double. This capped off the five-run explosion for the Ephs.
The Cardinals scored a final run in the last inning, courtesy of Nally's RBI single, but the Eph's timely hitting in the sixth inning helped them secure the first game of the doubleheader, 6-3.
Up until the sixth inning, both starting pitchers surrendered a total of one hit and one unearned run. Colton Reitan finished the game with 5.1 innings pitched, 8 strikeouts, and 6 walks, taking a no-hitter into the sixth inning. The Eph's starting pitcher,
Sean Hogan, went six and two-thirds innings, striking out 10 and giving up just one earned run. He was relieved by senior Brian Wooley who recorded the final out.
Williams head coach
Bill Barrale praised Hogan's impressive start which kept the Ephs in the game. "In game one, the story was
Sean Hogan," he said. "He pitched an unbelievable game."
In the second game of the day, the Ephs continued their hot-hitting against pitcher Pat Clare. Senior
Eric Pappas led off the first inning with a single, and Oelshalger continued to put his fingerprints on the doubleheader with a double down the right field foul line. Mini followed the feat with an opposite field extra-base hit that plated both Pappas and Oelschlager.
However, the Cardinals responded when starting pitcher first-year
Nick Skiera issued two consecutive walks to set up two RBI singles by outfielders Caden Grider and Jack Nally. Wesleyan pulled out ahead later in the fourth inning, helped by a series of errors by the Williams defense that not only led to a 3-2 Cardinals lead but also put Skiera out of the game. Senior
George Carroll took over relief duties.
The score stayed 3-2 until the top of the seventh inning when the Cardinals mounted a two-out rally, sparked by a Grider walk, steal, and run following Clifford's single. Senior
Nehemiah Wilson came in to try to end the frame, but gave up a base-clearing 2 RBI double by centerfielder Ryan Molinari.
The Ephs tried but failed to mount a comeback and dropped the second match of the day 6-2.
Barrale noted the two-out rally was a pivotal moment in the game. "In that last inning, we get two outs and in those two outs, [the Cardinals] scored three runs. Then our bats went quiet," he said. "It's a cruel game."
Cardinals pitcher Pat Clare went the distance in the seven-inning game with nine strikeouts and two earned runs. For the Ephs, Skiera struggled with control but only gave up one earned run in 3.2 innings of work. Altogether, the bats woke up for both teams in the second contest with 16 combined hits compared to just six in the first game.
After starting the season 5-0, Williams has slowed down from its torrid offensive start during Little Three competition, dropping three games against Amherst and splitting Saturday's matchup against Wesleyan. "The pace we were on wasn't sustainable. The team was hitting .377," Barrale noted about the first half of the season. "And we see better arms. Amherst's pitchers did a nice job and Wesleyan's two guys did a nice job. And we had hard outs."
With the season drawing to a close, Barrale expressed gratitude for each game the team is allowed to play. "The whole goal was to get the seniors some games, you know. And then we got out and played and we're off to a 5-0 start and that was like the furthest thing from my mind," he commented. "It's been a crazy couple of weeks."
The Williams College baseball team moves to 6-4 on the season and will finish out the shortened 2021 spring with a final game at Wesleyan on Sunday.
