May 21, 2004 

MANSFIELD, CT - The Amherst College baseball team clawed back from an early 7-0 deficit and had the tying and winning runs on board in the bottom of the eighth inning but saw its season come to a screeching halt with a 12-10 loss to Endicott College in an NCAA Regional elimination game Friday afternoon at Eastern Connecticut State University. The Jeffs finish their season at 19-18 after making their fourth NCAA Tournament appearance. 

Endicott set the tone early, smacking base hits on the first two pitches of the game and scoring five earned runs in the opening frame off Amherst rookie Brian Donahue (Sudbury, MA). The Gulls then tacked on two more runs in the second, another two in the third and tallied what turned out to be three very important insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning to take a whopping 12-5 lead. 

Down but not out, Amherst pieced together a four-run rally in the bottom of the seventh to cut the lead to 12-9. Sophomore Dave Levinson (Philadelphia, PA) helped ignite the barrage with a double to the right-centerfield gap, scoring rookie Mark Mazzone (Chicago, IL) all the way from first base. Sophomore Zach Schonberger (Rye, NY) then hammered a two-run shot off the light pole in left-centerfield, pulling the Jeffs within four runs and knocking Endicott starter Greg Allain from the game. Endicott reliever Jon Trowt hit the first batter he faced, sophomore Andrew Green (Lexington, MA), and then balked Green to second base, setting the stage for senior catcher Tom Sullivan's (Tewksbury, MA) fourth hit of the game, an RBI single up the middle. 

Levinson tacked on another run with an RBI single in the bottom of the eighth and the Jeffs proceeded to load the bases off yet another Endicott reliever, sophomore Matt Bishop (Woburn, MA). Bishop wiggled out of trouble with a strikeout and a groundout, however, and then retired the Jeffs in the ninth, earning his first save of the season. 

Amherst cranked out 15 hits in the loss but committed five errors and surrendered five unearned runs. Sullivan went 4-for-5 with two doubles, a pair of singles, three RBIs and two runs scored in his final collegiate game. Levinson finished 3-for-5, driving in a pair and scoring another. Schonberger's home run was his team-leading fifth of the season. 

Donahue took the loss to fall to 6-2. 

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