Baseball team belts three homers, sweeps UMPI in doubleheader
Game 1 Box Score (Bates 17, UMPI 3)
Game 2 Box Score (Bates 13, UMPI 11)
LEWISTON, Maine — Sophomore first baseman Erik Hood (Berlin, N.H.) hit two three-run home runs and senior 3B Adam Worrall (Duxbury, Mass.) belted a grand slam as the Bates College baseball team swept UMaine-Presque Isle in a doubleheader on Wednesday, 17-3 in five innings and 13-11 in the second game.
The Bobcats (7-10) battered Owls starter Shane Dupuis (New Glasgow, Nova scotia) in the first game for 17 runs on 16 hits over four innings, in highly windy conditions that made outfielding a constant adventure.
With two outs and the bases loaded in the second, Worrall lofted a high fly ball over the left field fence for the grand slam, Bates’ first home run of the season, to make it 10-0 Bates.
Hood, who was 4-for-4 in the game with four runs and six RBIs and who drove in nine runs total on the day, added a three-run homer in the fourth on a screaming line drive that cleared the left field fence.
First-year starting pitcher Chuck Murphy-Romboletti (Holyoke, Mass.) earned the win with a mercy-rule shortened five-inning complete game, allowing three earned runs over five innings while striking out three. It was Murphy-Romboletti’s first collegiate victory.
The Owls made things much more difficult for the Bobcats in the second game, jumping on Bates junior starter Peter Meisel (Newtown, Conn.) for five runs, all unearned, in the first inning, then reaching first-year reliever Lawrence Hinkle (Arlington, Va.) for four more runs in the third for a 9-5 lead. But Bates scored in every inning except for the sixth, including Hood’s second three-run homer of the day in the second, and with four runs in the bottom of the third the Bobcats tied the game at 9-9. Already, the teams had combined for 24 hits and 18 runs.
Bates first-year reliever Ben Thayer (Gorham, Maine) settled things down, ending the Owls’ rally in the third by striking out Reid McGlinn for the third out, then notching three straight shutout innings en route to his first collegiate victory.
Bates went ahead in the fourth, as senior Tyler Paul (Great Falls, Mont.) was hit by a pitch to lead off the inning and senior Donovan Driscoll (Braintree, Mass.) followed with a single, and both players later came home on wild pitches by UMPI sophomore starter Brandon Elie (Auburn, Maine).
Bates struck again in the fifth, with Hood reaching second on a two-base error and reaching home on the third and fourth of Elie’s five wild pitches on the day. Sophomore Brian Buckley (Andover, Mass.) was subsequently hit by a pitch, advanced to second on a wild pitch, reached third on a passed ball, and came home on Paul’s sacrifice fly.
UMPI added two runs in the seventh to make things interesting again, but Buckley came on to strike out two straight Owls for his first save and the 13-11 win.
Bates totalled 15 hits in the second game, reaching Elie for 13 runs, seven earned. The Owls racked up 17 hits with their 11 runs, six of them earned.
Among Bates’ many offensive standouts on the day were Hood (5-for-8, six runs, nine RBIs), Buckley (5-for-6, five runs, five RBIs), sophomore Casey McCormack (5-for-9, four runs) and sophomore Alex Egelson (3-for-4, two runs, two RBIs).
The Bobcats host Colby College Friday in a NESCAC game, starting at 3 p.m.