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Box Score 2 HARTFORD, CONN. — In its last matchup of the season, the Williams College baseball team lost both games of a doubleheader against Trinity College to finish 2021 with a 7-6 record. The Ephs fell to the Bantams 26-10 in the first game after giving up 11 runs in the third inning and 10 runs in the sixth inning. In the second contest, the Ephs were edged 6-4 in a far tighter affair that was locked at 4-4 headed into the eighth inning.
Coming off a 19-3 victory against Wesleyan University last weekend, Williams continued its offensive surge on Saturday with an eight-run third inning. Sophomore
Cole Whitehouse led off with a comebacker off Trinity starter Alex Shafer's glove, and senior
Jeremy Irzyk drew a four-pitch walk to set up a scoring opportunity. After a fly-out from senior
Eric Pappas, senior Phillip Barnett singled to bring in Whitehouse.
Sophomore
Jakob Cohn followed up by ripping a two-run double down the left field line that scored Irzyk and Barnett. Junior
Nate Orluk drove a ball to the same spot as Cohn after senior
Erik Mini walked to bring in two more runs, making the score 5-2 Ephs. Sophomore
Jon Singleton and Whitehouse, the inning's leadoff hitter, then came up and both singled to drive in two more runs.
The scoring outburst finished as Williams loaded the bases and Barnett walked to bring in the eighth run of the frame. In total, the Ephs tallied eight hits in the third and forced the Bantams to use four pitchers for three outs.
Despite the success of Williams' lineup, Trinity was able to comeback from the deficit with an even bigger inning, immediately scoring 11 runs in the bottom of the third inning. Catcher Alex Rodriguez led off the inning, driving a fly ball to deep center field for a stand-up double. He scored a few pitches later after a ground ball by first baseman Sean Marks went under Irzyk's glove. Left fielder Vincent Capone capitalized by ripping a two-run triple and then scoring from third on a wild pitch.
The run continued when second baseman Bennett Teceno doubled, chasing Williams sophomore starter
Sean Hogan from the game. With Ephs senior reliever
Bryan Woolley on the mound, designated hitter Eric Thronson singled to score Teceno and bring the Bantams within one run. After a walk and a hit-by-pitch by Woolley, Meth came back up for a second time and drove a double to put Trinity on top, 10-8. Pinch hitter Brandon Chow delivered the final blow by crushing a three-run home run to bring the score to 13-8.
Down five, the Ephs put together a small two-out rally to make the score 13-10. Mini and Orluk led off with consecutive extra-base hits, scoring one. Then junior pinch-hitter
Tyler Spiezio grounded a ball to the right side to bring Orluk home.
Despite the comeback efforts of the Ephs, the Bantam's high-octane offense produced 13 unanswered runs in the fifth and sixth innings to put the game out of reach. In the fifth inning, Rodriguez and Capone led off with two singles, setting up Chow to deliver a 2-run double that ended Woolley's two-inning stint. With first-year
J.P. Wong in the game, the Bantams put up one last run when Chow advanced to third on a wild pitch and scored on right fielder Yoshi Omi-Jarrett's sac-fly.
In the sixth, Trinity added to their 16-10 lead by driving in an additional 10 runs on six hits. Third baseman Patrick Dillon singled, and Meth drew a walk from Wong — one of three in the inning. Then Rodriguez doubled to plate Dillon. Meth scored on a subsequent passed ball.
After a few walks to load the bases, Wong was relieved by senior
Nehemiah Wilson who gave up an RBI single to Teceno to make the game 19-10. After a wild pitch and a strikeout, Thronson notched his fifth hit on a two-run double. Following a single and walk, Meth came up for the second time in the inning and blasted a grand slam — an exclamation mark to cap off an emphatic 26-10 victory for the Bantams.
For the Ephs, only four pitchers took the mound, giving up a grand total of 26 runs on 21 hits. Hogan pitched his shortest start of the season, giving up six earned runs and striking out six Bantams in two innings of work. Orluk led the offense with two timely extra-base hits that drove in three runs.
After scoring just two runs in a three-game series against Tufts last weekend, Trinity's lineup erupted for 21 hits, including eight doubles and two home runs. Thronson tallied three doubles and five RBIs while Meth delivered a grand slam to end the first contest with seven RBIs. Despite coming in as a pinch-hitter, Chow crushed a three-run homerun in the third inning and drove in five runs on the day.
"That was a good team," said head coach
Bill Barrale. "We were up 8-2, and then the wheels came off. We couldn't get out of that next inning."
In the second game of the doubleheader, Trinity again started the scoring early with two sacrifice flies in the first inning to take a 2-0 lead. But Spiezo responded for Williams by tying the score at 2-2 in the second with a deep home run to right field after his teammate, Orluk, earned a walk. The emphatic fly signaled that the Ephs would not go down without a fight after the lopsided loss in game one.
Feeding off the momentum, Pappas and Barnett laced together back-to-back singles at the top of the lineup for the Ephs in the top of the third inning. However, Cohn grounded into a 6-4-3 double play to end the threat.
Trinity briefly retook the lead with another deep sacrifice fly to create a 3-2 advantage in the bottom half of the third, but Williams cleanup hitter Mini soon answered by hitting his fourth home run of the season, a solo shot to right field, to knot the game at 3-3.
After knotting the game with his bat, Mini helped to preserve the tie with his glove. He caught a deep fly ball against the fence in left field to rob Trinity second baseman Teceno of an extra base hit. Later in the frame, with runners on first and second base for the Bantams, a dramatic pop up down the right-field foul line was dropped by the second baseman Irzyk, but the right fielder Singleton recovered the ball and fired to second base for the force out. No runners reached home. Cohn then completed the inning of standout defensive plays for the Ephs with a head-first dive in foul territory to catch a pop up.
Irzyk quickly made up for his drop by leading off the next inning with a single to right-center field. He reached home two batters later, when Cohn slapped an RBI single to break the tie. The Ephs led for the first time, 4-3.
Immediately after though, Trinity retied the game, 4-4. Bantams catcher Rodriguez singled to lead off the bottom of the fifth, stole second, and then scored on a single by his teammate, first baseman Gianni Valentini. When the Bantams followed by loading the bases and inserting Meth as a pinch hitter, Williams first-year starter
Eric Gage secured a key strikeout.
Gage went five innings and allowed only six hits to the high-powered Trinity offense. He struggled early, as he was called for three balks and also walked six batters, but he trusted his outfield, which recorded 10 flyouts behind him. His opposite number, Bantams starter Cameron Crowley, went four innings and allowed five hits to the Ephs.
First-year right-hander
Nick Skiera, usually a starter for head coach
Bill Barrale, relieved Gage on the mound in the sixth inning. Skiera tossed two innings of scoreless ball before running into trouble in the eighth.
Trinity center fielder John Flannigan led off the frame with a single up the middle. He stole second base before Dillon slashed a clutch RBI single to left field to retake the lead for the Bantams, 5-4. Flannigan beat the throw at the plate with a diving slide. With another single, Capone then drove in Dillon to add an insurance run for the Bantams. Suddenly ahead, Trinity entered the ninth inning with a 6-4 advantage.
Down to their final three outs, the Ephs mustered a small rally in the ninth. Whitehouse began the frame with a walk before advancing to second on a groundout and reaching third on a wild pitch. Two more groundouts, however, closed the slight opening for Williams. At the top of the lineup, neither Pappas nor Barnett could poke the ball out of the infield. Each hustled down the first base line, but could not beat well-placed throws from the Bantams.
"I'm proud of them, the way they responded after the first game," head coach
Bill Barrale said. "We played a clean game defensively, and two freshmen pitched really well. We just came up a little short."
Williams dropped its last two games, but stayed above .500 on the shortened season at 7-6. Trinity finished 11-6.
