AMHERST, Mass. -- A five-run first inning put the Amherst College baseball team in a hole it could not climb out of Tuesday afternoon at Memorial Field, as the Mammoths ultimately dropped their regular-season finale, 9-2, to Wheaton (Mass.) College.
Amherst fell to 22-11 overall while the Lyons improved to 24-10. Amherst will host Colby in a best-of-three NESCAC Tournament quarterfinals series beginning Friday at 3 p.m. with a second game scheduled for Saturday at 11 a.m. The third game will be played 30 minutes after if necessary.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
* Wheaton took a quick 1-0 lead in the top of the first when their second batter, Brayden Lewis, belted solo home run to left. Ty Bellan capped the inning for the visitors with a three-run, bases-clearing double to deep left that gave the Lyons a 5-0 lead.
* Amherst got one back in the bottom of the third when
Charlie LaFreniere bounced a single through the left side of the infield to score
Yoon Chae, who was pinch-running for
Leo Foust, who was beaned to lead-off the frame.
* The Mammoths final run came in the bottom of the eighth when LaFreniere led off and reached on a two-base error and
Justin Orridge followed by ripping a line drive single into right field to score him and make it 9-2.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* The two teams used a total of 14 pitchers in the game, seven from each side.
Liam Lennon took the loss for the Mammoths, falling to 0-2.
* Amherst had eight hits in the loss. LaFreniere was 3 for 4 with an RBI and run scored.
Jackson Boyer,
Aiden Dubetsky,
Tyler McCord, Orridge and
Zander Carnahan had one hit each.
