WATERVILLE, Maine -- The Bates baseball team took on Bowdoin Saturday in a doubleheader, dropping game one 4-3 in extra innings before bouncing back to take game two 5-3.
The Bobcats (4-9, 1-2 NESCAC) and Polar Bears (8-7, 2-1 NESCAC) played both games at Coombs Field in Waterville, with Bates as the home team.
Game One: Bowdoin 4, Bates 3 (8 innings)
The Bobcats scored twice in the bottom of the seventh to force extra innings but Bowdoin's Eric Mah singled in the eventual game-winning run in the top of the eighth to give Bowdoin a 4-3 win over Bates in game one of Saturday's doubleheader.
Bowdoin's Brandon Lopez (2-1) allowed a run in the first but shut down the Bobcats after that. He entered the bottom of the seventh having only allowed one hit on the afternoon. Down 3-1, Bates senior Connor DiVincenzo (Westwood, Mass.) got the rally started in the seventh with a single to left. Sophomore Kyle Carter (Plantation, Fla.) followed with a single to left-center, advancing DiVincenzo to third.Â
Junior Dan Trulli (Melrose, Mass.) singled in DiVincenzo to cut the Bowdoin lead to 3-2. Sophomore Jack Arend (Newfields, N.H.) bunted the runners over and sophomore Zach Avila (San Francisco, Calif.) delivered an RBI grounder to plate Carter, tying the score at three. Lopez struck out the next batter, leaving the winning run 90 feet away.Â
The Polar Bears responded in the top of the eight. Connor Lee drew a leadoff walk. One out later James McCarthy singled to left, putting runners at first and second. Then Mah singled up the middle to put the Polar Bears up 4-3.Â
Junior Justin Foley (Lynnfield, Mass.) struck out Joe Gentile and got Lopez to fly out to end the inning.
Colby Lewis entered the game to pitch for the Polar Bears in the bottom of the eighth. With one away, junior Justin White (Whitesboro, N.Y.) pinch hit and drew a walk. Then with two away, the Bobcat pinch runner stumbled slightly attempting to steal second, Polar Bear catcher Colby Joncas threw him out to end the game.Â
Bates jumped out to a 1-0 lead thanks to sophomore Pat Beaton (West Newbury, Mass.) singling to begin the bottom of the first. He advanced to second on a DiVincenzo ground ball. Then Beaton stole third and scored when Joncas' throw sailed in to left field.
Lopez retired the next 18 batters he faced in a row and the Polar Bears went ahead 3-1 in the fifth thanks mostly to two Bates errors. Gentile and Austin Zakow drove in runs in the inning.Â
Sophomore Nolan Collins (Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.) got the start for Bates and tossed four innings, giving up three runs (one earned) on five hits. He walked two and struck out four in the no-decision. Senior captain Jake Shapiro (Sandy, Utah) threw two innings of scoreless ball and first-year Peter Schuldt (Winnetka, Ill.) got Bates out of a bases loaded jam in the seventh.Â
Mah, Gentile and McCarthy recorded two hits each for Bowdoin. Meanwhile, the top four hitters in the Bates lineup recorded one hit apiece. The Polar Bears outhit the Bobcats 8-4 in the contest.Â
Game Two: Bates 5, Bowdoin 3
After taking the loss in game one, Justin Foley (2-2) earned the win in a 5-3 victory for the Bobcats in game two. Â
Foley tossed five innings of one-run ball, allowing just four hits and striking out two. He did not walk a single batter.
With the score tied at one, Bates took the lead for good with two runs in the second off Bowdoin starter Seamus Keenan (1-2). The bottom of the order got the job done with junior Asher MacDonald (Hillsborough, N.C.) doubling with one away in the frame. Sophomore Giovanni Torres (North Haven, Conn.) singled him home and sophomore Jon Lindgren (Plainville, Conn.) picked up his first collegiate hit with an RBI double to extend the Bates lead to 3-1.Â
The Bobcats picked up an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth. Beaton singled to start the frame. That chased Keenan from the game and DiVincenzo greeted new pitcher Justin Schachter with a grounder back to the mound. Schachter threw wide to second base and Beaton scampered to third. Trulli picked up his second RBI grounder of the game when he hit a grounder in the hole and the Polar Bears' only play was at second base, allowing Beaton to score, extending Bates' lead to 4-1.
Bowdoin rallied for a pair of runs in the sixth against Shapiro. Mah reached on an error and Nick Sadler singled to center. Both runners moved up 90 feet on a ground ball. Then Zakow singled off Shapiro's glove, scoring Mah. A Jack Wilhoite sacrifice fly cut the Bates lead to one.
The Bobcats kept the Polar Bears at bay thanks to another run in the bottom of the sixth. Avila singled to right and first-year Rob Matson (West Hartford, Conn.) pinch ran, advancing to second when MacDonald got hit by a pitch. Torres bunted the runners over and Lindgren delivered a sacrifice fly to put Bates up 5-3.Â
Shapiro made sure the score stayed that way with a 1-2-3 seventh inning, earning his second save of the season.
The teams traded runs early in the game on a Trulli RBI grounder for Bates and a Zakow opposite field homer for Bowdoin. The Bobcats grabbed the lead and held on for their first NESCAC win of the year.Â
The Bobcats take on Plymouth State in non-conference action this Wednesday at 4:00 p.m.Â
