AMHERST, Mass. -- Facing a 10-1 deficit Friday at Memorial Field, the Amherst College baseball team put together a furious eighth-inning rally only to ultimately fall short in a 10-5 loss to Tufts University in front of 181 fans.
The Jumbos improved to 17-5 overall while the Mammoths slipped to 15-7. The two teams are back at it Saturday for a doubleheader with the first game starting at 12 p.m.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
* The third Tufts batter of the game, Tate Bannish, cracked a two-run homer and the Jumbos were off and running.
* Amherst answered with a run in its half of the first as
Tyler McCord beat out an infield grounder to short with two outs and raced around to score when Charlie LaFrenier launched a deep fly into the right-center field gap that fell for an RBI-double.
* Tufts scored two more in the second and three in the third. Tom Pender lined a two-run double in the third and scored on Jesse McCullough's RBI-single.
* Single run in the fifth, seventh and eighth made it 10-1 Jumbos. Tufts right-hander Cole Donato departed after seven innings. He allowed just five hits and one run, did not walk a batter and struck out three. He would improve to 5-1 on the season.
* Amherst made it a game off three Tufts relievers in the bottom of the eighth, getting the tying run to the on-deck circle.
Aiden Dubetsky waked and
Leo Foust singled. After an out, LaFreniere walked to load the bases.
Zander Carnahan's fielder's choice scored Dubetsky and
Jackson Boyer worked a walk to re-load the bases for
Jack Darcy, who lined a two-run single into left-center to make it 10-4.
Matthew Chen walked and
Carson Ames also drew a free pass, forcing home another run to make it 10-5 before the third out was recorded.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Amherst had eight hits in the loss. Foust, McCord, LaFreniere and Darcy each had two.
*
Nick Fassert took the loss, falling to 2-1.
Matt Tabet threw 4 2/3 innings of relief, giving up four hits and two runs while striking out three.
