Middletown, Conn. — In its final game of the shortened 2021 season, the Williams College baseball team (7-4) defeated Wesleyan College (5-6) by a score of 19-3 at Dresser Diamond on Sunday.
The Ephs jumped ahead with a six-run rally rally in the second inning to help first-year starter
Eric Gage cruise to his best outing of the season, giving up one earned runs and four hits in six innings of work. Sophomore
Jakob Cohn broke the game open with a base-clearing double in the second frame and senior Phillip Barnett chipped in four hits and a stolen base. Williams continued to add to its lead in the latter half of the game, culminating in a massive nine-run eighth inning that put the game out of reach, 19-3.
The Cardinals pitching staff struggled against the Ephs as nine pitchers combined to give up 18 hits and 11 walks throughout the game. The offense relied on base running as all three runs came on two wild pitches and a passed ball.
Williams head coach
Bill Barrale was impressed by the Ephs' timely hitting and pitching in their last regular season game of 2021. "I said to the guys, 'Get back to an approach we had earlier in the year.' We definitely came and swung the bats today and played loose," Barrale noted. "
Eric Gage pitched a great game for a freshman. He's gotten better and better four weekends in a row."
The Cardinals scored the first run of the game as Gage struggled with control issues. Center fielder Ryan Molinari walked and scored on three wild pitches.
The Ephs, however, answered by exploding for six-run in the second inning, three of which came with two outs. Senior
Erik Mini led off with a grounder through the right side and scored off a great read on Barnett's blooper to shallow center field. With the game even at 1-1, Cardinals starter Adam Bowler walked first-year
Nick Skiera and gave up the tie by throwing a wild pitch, scoring Barnett. Sophomore
Cole Whitehouse and first-year Kurt Oelshlager followed up with two RBI singles to make the score 4-1, chasing Bowler out of the game with two outs. Cohn delivered the last scoring playing of the inning when he blasted a fly-ball to deep center field that scored another two Eph batters.
Williams continued to add insurance run to pad its 6-1 lead, scoring in six of the nine innings. In the third inning, Whitehouse drove in his third run of the game with a single to center field. Then in the fourth inning, Oelshlager led off with a jam-shot to right field, advanced on a Cohn single and Mini walk, and finally scored on a wild pitch by reliever Joe Mescall. Cohn continued his offensive production in the following inning when he flied out to left field to bring in Whitehouse, making the score 9-1.
In the bottom of the sixth, the Cardinals set up a two-out rall opportunity after designated hitter Ryan Finkel singled, first baseman Ian Appleby was hit by a pitch, and shortstop Matt Halas walked. Nevertheless, Wesleyan failed to take advantage of a bases-loaded situation when third baseman Cole Torino grounded into an inning-ending fielder's choice.
The Ephs' offense put up an additional nine runs on five hits in the eighth to blow the game open, 19-3. Whitehouse tallied his fourth hit of the game with a double down the left field line — just the second extra-base hit for the Ephs until that point. Reliever Dylan Judd struggled with control and issued three consecutive walks to sophomore
Jon Singleton, senior
Eric Pappas, and Oelshlager which not only loaded the bases but also scored Whitehouse. With the score 11-3, seniors Mini and Barnett notched singles to the right side that scored three Ephs. After senior
Jeremy Irzyk reached on an error, Pappas came up to the plate for the second time in the inning and drove a ball up the middle to plate two more batters and increase the lead to 19-3.
The Ephs offense never relented during the contest, with the leadoff batter reaching safely every inning except the ninth. Altogether, the Ephs finished the game with 18 hits but only two extra-base hits. Cohn drove in four runs and both Whitehouse and Barnett totaled four hits. Gage surrendered two runs in six innings while relievers first-year
J.P. Wong and senior Brian Woolley finished out the game giving up just one earned run.
The majority of the Cardinals' pitching staff made an appearance during this game as nine pitchers each pitched less than two innings, struggling with command issues. Molinari led the Wesleyan lineup with a hit and two walks, although no batter recorded an RBI.
With the victory, Williams improves to 7-4 to finish second behind Amherst College (8-3) in the NESCAC West Division.
