May 7, 2004 

HARTFORD, CT - Sophomore shortstop Zach Schonberger (Rye, NY) went 4-for-6 with five RBIs, including a grand slam in the top of the first inning, to lead visiting Amherst College to a 16-8 victory over 10th-ranked Trinity College in the first round of the NESCAC Baseball Championship Tournament on Friday. Bowdoin College joined Amherst in the winners' bracket with a 6-3 win over Williams, played at Wesleyan University. 

Amherst, the No. 2 seed in the NESCAC West Division, will play Bowdoin, seeded No. 2 in the NESCAC East, in a winners' bracket game tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at Trinity College. Trinity, seeded No. 1 in the NESCAC East Division, drops to 27-8 and will play Williams in a losers' bracket game tomorrow at 10:30 a.m. at Wesleyan. 

Amherst (17-16) jumped out to an early 4-0 lead, thanks to Schonberger's fourth home run of the season - a two-out, bases-loaded blast that scored reigning NESCAC Player of the Week Andrew Green (Lexington, MA), Dave Levinson (Philadelphia, PA) and Brandon Cody (Boston, MA). The Jeffs rallied again in the top of the second, upping the lead to 9-0 with a backbreaking five-run flurry, highlighted by RBI singles by Mark Mazzone (Chicago, IL), Levinson and Josh Santry (Allendale, NJ). 

Meanwhile, Amherst starter Andy Kerns (Barrington, IL) cruised, surrendering just one run on four hits through the first seven innings as the Jeffs took a whopping 13-1 lead into the bottom of the eighth. Trinity managed eight runs off Kerns in the final two frames, but it proved to be too little, too late as the Jeffs sealed the win with a trio of insurance runs in the ninth. 

Kerns improved to 4-3 with his third straight victory. Amherst junior reliever Ed Imperatore (Tenafly, NJ) got the final two outs with a pair of strikeouts in the ninth inning. 

Senior co-captain Tom Sullivan (Tewksbury, MA) punctuated the rout with his second home run of the season - a two-run tomahawk shot in the top of the seventh. Levinson finished with a double, two singles, three RBIs and a pair of runs scored, upping his batting average to a team-best .373. Cody tallied three hits as well, driving in a pair of runs and scoring four times. Junior Dave Powers (Andover, MA) added a pair of singles and stole a base. 

Amherst's decisive win avenged a 10-5 loss at Trinity earlier in the season. The Jeffs downed Trinity in a winners' bracket game in last year's NESCAC Tournament as well, before the Bantams rebounded to sweep the Jeffs for the conference championship, earning an automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament. 

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