Big rally leads baseball to split against Middlebury

The Hamilton College Continentals rallied for a 7-2 win in game two and earned a split of Saturday afternoon's NESCAC West Division doubleheader against the Middlebury College Panthers at Hamilton's Royce Field.

Game one box score | Game two box score

Ryan Wolfsberg ’17 and Andrew Haser ’17 hit two-run homers to spark the Continentals’ seven-run sixth inning in the nightcap. The Panthers won the opener 12-8 in eight innings after Hamilton (8-8, 1-3 NESCAC West) fought back from an 8-1 deficit to force extra innings.

Wolfsberg and Haser connected for their first career home runs in Hamilton’s sixth-inning outburst. Middlebury’s Eric Truss '15 carried a three-hit shutout into the sixth and retired the first two batters before Chris Collins ’17 reached on an infield hit. Wolfsberg followed with a home run over the left field fence and two batters later, Haser connected for a two-run homer to left center. Hamilton tacked on three more runs to seal the win. Zack Becker ’16 was hit by a pitch and stole second before coming home on a base hit by Joe Jensen ’15. After Mike Chiseri ’16 drew a walk, Kenny Collins ’17 doubled down the line to score both runners.

Colin Henneberger ’14 improved to 2-0 with the win, striking out a career-best eight batters in his first complete game for the Continentals. Henneberger held Middlebury scoreless over the last three innings, working out of a runners-on-second-and-third jam with no outs in the top of the fifth.

Ryan Rizzo ’17 singled to center to lead off the Panther fifth and Alex Kelly ’14 doubled to left. Henneberger induced a ground ball to third base and a fly ball to left for the first two outs and struck out the clean-up hitter on three pitches to keep the Panthers from adding to their 2-0 lead.

Middlebury (3-12, 1-7) scored single runs in the second and fourth innings. Dan Andrada ’15 hit a two-out single to score Max Araya ’16, who led off the inning with a double, for the first run. Joe Macdonald ’16 added a run-scoring single in the fifth. Jason Lock ’17 walked on four pitches to start the inning, moved to second on a wild pitch and advanced to third on a fly ball down the right field line before Macdonald’s one-out RBI single.

Jensen had two of Hamilton’s eight hits and stretched his stolen base streak to 10 games.

In game one, Macdonald capped Middlebury’s four-run eighth inning with his first home run of the season. The Panthers had led 8-1 after two innings before Hamilton came back to tie the score with three runs in the fifth and four more in the seventh.

Kenny Collins and his twin brother Chris Collins hit two-run singles in Hamilton’s four-run seventh. Tyler Reinhold ’15 was hit by a pitch to lead off, Jensen followed with a single to left center and Chiseri hit a ground ball that the shortstop knocked down in the hole to load the bases. Kenny Collins singled to center to cut the Panther lead to 8-6 and stole second on the first pitch by reliever Jake Stalcup ’17. Stalcup retired the first two batters he faced before Chris Collins blooped a single over the shortstop into left center to tie the score.

The Panthers retook the lead when John Luke '16 doubled in Kelly, who had walked to lead off the eighth. Lock singled to score another run and one out later, Macdonald homered over the fence in left field.

Stalcup earned the win with two innings of scoreless relief. He shut down the Continentals in the eighth, allowing just a two-out single by Jensen.

The Panthers, who snapped a six-game losing streak with their game one victory, scored seven unearned runs in the first two innings on six errors by the Continentals. Macdonald singled in a run in Middlebury’s three-run first and two more runs came home on Hamilton errors. In the second, Araya hit a two-run double and later scored the fifth run of the inning on an RBI single by Greg Sigelbaum ‘17.

Hamilton’s Cole Dreyfuss ’16 held down the fort with four innings of one-hit relief, keeping Middlebury off the scoreboard while the Continentals began their rally. Haser and Reinhold led off the bottom of the fifth with walks to start the comeback. Haser scored on a single by Chiseri and Steve LaRochelle ’14 followed with a two-run double.

Chiseri finished with his second consecutive three-hit game. LaRochelle, who drove in Hamilton’s first run with a ground out, collected two hits and three runs batted in. Jensen and Kenny Collins had two hits apiece.

Kelly scored three of Middlebury’s 12 runs. Read, Lock and Macdonald had two hits each.

The teams conclude their weekend series at Royce Field on Sunday, April 13, at 11 a.m.