AMHERST, Mass. -- Senior Jack Dove reached the 100-hit milestone Sunday by hitting a go-ahead grand slam home run to help the Amherst College baseball team top Hamilton, 8-5, on Memorial Field and finish off a three-game sweep of their NESCAC West Division rival.

The Mammoths improved to 13-4 overall, 4-2 in conference play. The Continentals fell to 7-10 overall and 1-5 in conference play.  Amherst is at Clark University Wednesday for a 5 p.m. start. 

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* The Mammoths took a 1-0 lead on Hamilton in the first Sunday. Jack Sampedro walked and took second on an errant pick-ff attempt. He moved to third on fielder's choice and scored when Ryan McIntyre was  thrown out stealing second. 

* Amherst starter  Jacob Ribitzki made that 1-0 lead through 3 1/2 frames with his best outing of the season. He worked out of a jam in the second when he picked off a Continental at second and then, with the bases loaded and two outs, blew a fastball past a Hamilton batter to end the threat. 

* The Mammoths made it 2-0 in the bottom of the fourth when Christian Fagnant rocketed a solo home run to right field.

* Hamilton was able to chase Ribitzki in the top of the fifth, scoring four times to take a two-run lead. Shane Dux had the big blow, a two-run double to left. Adrian Caron came on for the Mammoths and escaped a base-loaded jam by incuding a forceout off a groundball to end the inning. 

* The Mammoths answered with four runs of their own in the bottom of the fifth. Consecutive walks to McDermott, McIntyre and Padian loaded the bases for Dove, who was sitting on his 99th hit. He rocked the first pitch of his at-bat to deep left-center field, clearing the fence for a grand slam, his third  home run of the season, a career high, to give Amherst a 6-4 lead. 

* Sampedro took over on the mound and he was elite on this day, tossing the last four frames to earn his first save of the 2024 season.  He also helped out in a two-run bottom of the eighth inning. Charlie LaFreniere led off with lined single to center. Javier Irizarry followed by lining a shot down the right-field lie that stayed fair and then curled out of play for a ground-ruule double.  Jack Boyled walked to load the bases prior to Sampedro driving a deep drive to left that scored LaFreniere for a sacrifice fly that made iy 7-5. McIntyre then lined an RBI-single to left that made it 8-5. 

BY THE NUMBERS:

* Sampedro closed out the contest by inducing three straight groundouts in the ninth. he went four full frames, allowing just two hits and one run. He did not walk a batter and struck out one to earn his first save of 2024. 

* Amherst had six hits in the win with LaFreniere going 2 for 4. They drew 11 walks from Hamilton pitching. McDermott and Padian walked three times each. 

* Dove was 1 for 4 with 4 RBI and a run scored.