HARTFORD, Conn. -- The Bates baseball team played a pair of thrilling games Saturday at Trinity, with the Bobcats dropping game one in extra innings by a score of 6-5, then bouncing back to beat Trinity 6-5 in game two of the twin bill.
Bates (9-7, 1-2 NESCAC East) is scheduled to host Husson this Wednesday at 3:30 pm.
Game One: Trinity 6, Bates 5 (8 innings)
William Sawyer's sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth inning gave the Bantams a come-from-behind 6-5 win over Bates in game one of Saturday's doubleheader.
Down 2-0, the Bobcats grabbed the lead in the top of the fifth. Senior captain
Jack Brennan (West Hartford, Conn.) got things started with a double to left. Senior captain
Chris Cimino (Scarborough, Maine) followed with an infield single and junior
Brandon Biggane (Rensselaer, N.Y.) put the Bobcats up 3-2 with a three-run homer, his team-leading fifth long ball of the season.
The Bobcats added to their lead in the top of the sixth. Sophomore
Gibby Sullivan (Yarmouth, Maine) tripled to begin the frame and sophomore
Liam Yardley (Keene, N.H.) doubled him home. A ground out moved Yardley to third and Brennan doubled him home, making the score 5-2 in favor of Bates.
But Trinity rallied against Bates starting pitcher senior
Sam Hough (Dobbs Ferry, N.Y.) in the bottom of the sixth. With one out, William Frain singled to left. Tyler Berstein and Jack Ryan followed with back-to-back singles, with Ryan's hit scoring pinch runner Luis Saldivia to cut the Bates lead to 5-3. Ryan stole second and Andrew Thomas Park drove in Bernstein with a ground out to Hough. Sawyer followed with a single to left-center, scoring Ryan and evening the score at five apiece.
The game, scheduled for seven innings, went to extra frames, and the Bantams pushed across the winning run in the bottom of the eighth. Bernstein smacked a one-out double, Ryan was intentionally walked, and Park singled to load the bases. That's when Sawyer hit his sacrifice to win the game for the Bantams.
The teams combined for 24 hits in game one, with Trinity tallying 13 and Bates 11.
Michael Aceto (4-1) worked three shutout innings out of the bullpen to earn the win.
Game Two: Bates 6, Trinity 5
The Bobcats scored four runs in the third inning and hung on from there to defeat the Bantams 6-5 in game two of Saturday's doubleheader.
Yardley and Brennan both got hit by a pitches to start the third and Cimino drew a walk to load the bases. Biggane drew a walk as well to put the Bobcats up 1-0. First-year
Henry Prince (McLean, Va.) followed with a single to right, scoring Brennan for the second run of the inning. Prince advanced to second on a wild pitch and junior
Ben Genser (Newton, Mass.) singled in a pair of runs for a 4-0 Bates lead.
The Bantams (7-9, 2-1 NESCAC) tried to pull off another comeback, scoring three times in the bottom of the fourth. Sean Meth doubled in a pair of runs and Frain singled in Meth to cut the Bates lead to 4-3.
Bates starting pitcher sophomore
Diego Sarabia (Atlanta, Ga.) got out of the inning without any further damage thanks to a ground out and a pair of pop outs.
Genser got the offense going again in the top of the fifth with single to left. Senior
Noah Jankowski (Methuen, Mass.) drew a walk and both runners moved up 90 feet on a balk. Sullivan doubled in both runners to make the score 6-3.
Trinity answered right away with two runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth, scoring on a balk and a wild pitch respectively.
Now up by one, the Bobcats got two key innings out of the bullpen from junior
Micah Sheats (Niwot, Colo.) to secure the victory. Sarabia (1-3) walked the lead off batter in the sixth, and Sheats entered the game, getting Ryan to hit into a double play. Then he struck out Park to the end the inning. Sheats worked around a lead-off walk in the seventh to earn the first save of his collegiate career and secure Sarabia his first win.
The Bobcats out-hit Trinity 8-6 in game two, with Genser and Prince both going 2-4 at the plate.
