Fayetteville, NC - For the final game of their spring trip, the Williams College Ephs take on #18 Methodist University and would fall 15-6 in the contest. This loss was a true heartbreaker for the Ephs as they were leading for much of the game before losing the handle late. First-year
Michael Amendola led things off on the mound for Williams.
The Ephs got the scoring started first, scoring 3 runs in the first three innings of the game. In the second inning, Anthony Lods was able to reach second base on a throwing error by the third baseman. He was then scored by a base hit from second baseman Daniel Lynch. In the third inning, Jakob Cohn and Henry Juan hit a double and single respectively to give Williams runners in scoring position. Just like he's done many times this season already, Cole Whitehouse lined a base hit into center field to plate both runners to the Ephs the early lead.
Both teams traded runs in the fourth inning. Lods got the Ephs offense going again with a walk to start the half. After a wild pitch that advanced the runner, Matthew Brown doinked a double down the left field line to score Lods. In their half of the inning, Methodist manufactured a run by capitalizing on a throwing error by Michael Giove. With the runner able to get to third on a popout to first, Jordan singled to center field to score the Monarchs' first run of the game.
Amendola was exceptional in his second collegiate apperance. Facing a nationally ranked offense and shutting them down for over five innings will give the Ephs confidence in their young starter as they enter conference play this upcoming weekend. Amendola would finish his day throwing 5.1 innnigs with 7 strikeouts and 3 walks while only surrendering 2 earned runs.
Unfortunately for the Ephs, this start would be squandered as the bullpen struggled to find the strike zone. In the sixth inning, Bo Peponis came in relief for Amendola and proceeded to walk and hit two batters, scoring a run. Jack Sandifer replaced Peponis to try and stop the bleeding. However, after walking in another run, Wilkerson singled on a 1-2 count, clearing the bases to give Methodist the lead. After striking a batter out, Sandifer was replaced by starter Eric Gage who was able to put an end to the inning by nabbing a runner trying to score on a wild pitch.
Methodist wouldn't stop there though as they managed to add on another 7 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning. After Gage walked a couple batters, JP Wong replaced him on the bump. A wild pitch followed by a walk and single allowed two runners to score. A squeeze scored the next runner from third. A couple of errors commited by the Ephs middle infielders allowed four more unearned runs to cross the plate, running the score up to 15-6.
Luca Lopetrone would come in from center field and finally shut down the Monarchs' offense, striking out the last batter while utilizing his mid-eighties fastball and tight slider. Cole Whitehouse collected four hits in the defeat. Despite losing by a wide margin, the Ephs outhit the Monarchs with 15 hits compared to 6.
The story of this game and many of their recent games is free bases. Issuing 12 walks and 2 hit-by-pitches, the pitching staff learned a lot about what they need to work on during this spring trip.
