Softball vies for playoff spot in big weekend for spring teams
LEWISTON, Maine — This weekend is certifiably a big one for many of Bates’ spring sports teams.
It gets no bigger than the Bates softball team’s three-game home series against Trinity. At stake for the Bobcats is their first berth in the NESCAC Softball Championship since the tournament began in 2001. Bates gets in by winning at least one game in the series against the NESCAC East Division rival Bantams, which would clinch second place in the division. Bates enters the series with a 5-4 divisional record, while Trinity is 3-6. The teams square off at Lafayette Street Field on Friday at 4 p.m., followed by a doubleheader on Saturday at 12 p.m.
Over on the baseball diamond on Friday, the Bates baseball team takes on Bowdoin at 3 p.m. to start a three-game series. The teams will play a doubleheader in Brunswick on Saturday. Baseball has a chance to also earn a bid in the NESCAC Championship by winning at least two out of three from the Polar Bears, but it will take some help from the Colby Mules in their series against Tufts.
The Bates men’s and women’s track and field teams compete in arguably their biggest meet of the year, the NESCAC Outdoor Championships, to be held at Connecticut College on Saturday. Both teams will look to improve upon last season’s performances, when the men finished a robust third out of 11 teams and the women came in seventh. Read the NESCAC’s meet preview story here.
The Bates women’s lacrosse team has already clinched its first spot in the eight-team field of the NESCAC Championship since 2002. The Bobcats will play on Sunday in the quarterfinals as either the sixth, seventh or eighth seed, depending on part on how they do in their regular-season finale, to be played against Colby at home on Friday at 7 p.m. The Bates men’s lacrosse team will play its season finale at Colby on Friday at 4:30 p.m.
In rowing, the No. 2 ranked Bates women will face off against No. 1 Williams for the first time this season in a regatta hosted by the Ephs in Pittsfield, Mass., on Saturday. The Bates men and women will be rowing in highly competitive races against Williams, Coast Guard, Marist and Ithaca.
Bates women’s tennis plays its final two home matches this weekend, hosting Colby on Friday at 4 p.m. and Wesleyan on Sunday at 10 a.m., with both matches counting in the NESCAC standings and figuring into the seedings for next weekend’s NESCAC Championships at Williams.
Bates men’s tennis, currently ranked No. 24 in Division III, wraps up the regular season with three home matches, all of them counting in the NESCAC standings and figuring into the seedings for next weekend’s NESCAC Championships at Williams. Colby visits on Thursday at 4 p.m., followed by Trinity on Saturday at 2 p.m. and Wesleyan on Sunday at 2 p.m.