AMHERST, Mass. -- Hamilton College sophomore Mark Kovach threw a complete-game five-hitter Friday, outdueling Mammoths sophomore Nick Fassert, as the Continentals defeated the Amherst College baseball team 4-1 in front of 157 at Memorial Field. 

Amherst fell to 20-10 overall with the loss, and 5-5 in the NESCAC West Division standings. Hamilton improved to 15-14 overall and 6-4 in the West. The two teams meet again Saturday back at Memorial Field for a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

* Hamilton took a 2-0 lead in the first and never looked back as Kovach's scattered five hits over nine innings. 

* Amherst answered Hamilton's two-run first with their only run of the game in its half of the inning. Jackson Boyer hit Kovac's first pitch of the game for a triple into the left-center field gap. He scored on the very next pitch as Leo Foust line a sacrifice fly to right field.

* Hamilton added to its lead with two runs in the top of the fourth. Kovach kept the Amherst bats quiet, retiring 11 in a row at one point between the third and the bottom of the sixth. Tyler McCord broke up that string wit a two-out single up the middle in the sixth.

* In the bottom of the eighth, Mammoth sophomore Matthew Chen led off with a pinch-hit single but Kovac fanned the next three Mammoths on swinging third strikes. 

* In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs Justin Orridge worked a walk of Kovach and Charlie LaFreniere followed with a pinch-hit single to right-center, but a groundout ended the contest. 

BY THE NUMBERS:

* Boyer went 2 for 4 with a run scored for Amherst. Nick Fassert fell to 3-2 on the season with the loss. Matt Tabet threw three scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits while walking no one and striking out two.