CLINTON, N.Y. -- Two late sacrifice flies allowed the Amherst College baseball team to rally past NESCAC West Division rival Hamilton, 8-7, at the Contonentals' Loop Road Baseball Complex.
Amherst improved to 15-14 on the season and 7-3 in the NESCAC West. Friday's victory clinched the No. 2 seed coming out of the West Division for Amherst, which means the Mammoths will host a best-of-three quarterfinal series on Memorial Field the weekend of May 3-4. Hamilton slipped to 14-15 overall, 2-8 in the division.
The two teams are back at it tomorrow for a doubleheader at the Loop Field Complex beginning at 12 p.m.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
* Amherst led 6-0 after the top of the third, but Hamilton scored six times in its half of the inning and once more in the bottom of the sixth to take a 7-6 lead.
* In the Amherst top of the eighth,
Tyler McCord led off with a single and moved to third on a
Jack Sampedro double into left-center field. After a groundout failed to move the runners, Charlie LaFrenier lofted a sacrifice fly to right field to tie things at 7-all. The Mammoths had the bases loaded with two outs but could not score.
* Sampedro came on to pitch the bottom of the eighth and struck out the side.
* In the top of the ninth,
Aiden Dubetsky blasted a one-out, opposite-field triple to the fence in left. A.J. Zaccaero, in his first at-bat of the day, rocketed a deep fly to right that scored Dubetsky easily for the go-ahead run.
* Sampedro earned the win, getting out of a first-and-second, one-out situation in the bottom of the ninth with a strikeout and a fly out to center fielder
Jack Boyle to end the game.
* Amherst took a 2-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI-single to center by McIntyre and an infield single to shortstop by
Justin Orridge.
* The Mammoths scored three times in the top of the second to build a 5-0 lead. With two outs and runners on first and second, an errant pick-off attempt allowed
Ben Smith to score and
Jack Boyle to advance to second. Boyle then stole third before Sampedro crushed a ball to left field that cleared the fence for a two-run homer, his second home run of the season.
* In the top of the third, Smith lined a double, took third on a passed ball and scored on a two-out throwing error for a 6-0 Amherst lead.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Each team had 12 hits. McCord was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored. Smith was 2 for 4 with 2 runs scored. Dubetsky was 2 for 5 with 2 runs scored. Sampedro was 2 for 6 with 2 RBI and a run scored.
*
Nick Fassert started for the Mammoths and went the first five frames. Aidran Caron (1 inning) and Sampedro (two frames) combined to toss three shutout innings at the end of the contest.
