AMHERST, Mass. -- Trinity College senior right-hander Tyler Colditz threw three shutout innings of relief Friday afternoon at Memorial Field to hold the Amherst College baseball team at bay in a 5-4 Bantams win in the opening game of a NESCAC Tournament quarterfinal best-of-three series.
Colditz earned his first save of the season, allowing two hits and no walks over his three innings of work. Joe Capano (5-4) earned the win with six innings of four-run ball while Mammoth first-year
Nick Fassert (3-3) was saddled with the loss.
Amherst fell to 19-15 with the loss while Trinity improved to 19-15.
The two teams are scheduled to meet Saturday at 10:30 a.m. in the second game of the quarterfinal series. An Amherst win would force a winner-take-all third game scheduled for 1 p.m. or a half hour after Saturday's first game concludes.
GAME HIGHLIGHTS:
* Trinity opened up an early 3-0 lead with a run in the second and two in the third on a two-out, two-run single to left by by Will Sawyer.
* Amherst got two back in the bottom of the frame. With two outs and no one on,
Jack Sampedro beat out an infield single to shortstop.
Ryan McIntyre then ripped a shot down the left-field line that Trinity's Tyler Bernstein made a nice diving play on, but the ball glanced off of him and rolled into shallow left field. Seeing a chance, Sampedro darted to third and was safe on a bang-bang play as McCord cruised into second.
Charlie LaFreniere then ripped a single back up the middle to score both runners and make it a 3-2 game.
* Trinity picked up two more runs in the top of the sixth on a fielder's choice and sacrifice fly -- the latter coming on a magnificant catch by Amherst left fielder
Justin Orridge -- to increase its lead to 5-2.
* In the bottom of the seventh,
Aiden Dubetsky led off for the Mammoths and worked a walk after an 11-pitch at-bat that included five straight foul balls with two strikes. McCord followed and he launched a two-run homer well over the fence in left field to make it a 5-4 game. That ended the day for Capano and brought on Colditz. Sampedro greeted him with a bloop fly down the right-field line that found grass safely and went for a double. With two outs, Orridge came through with a single to left, but a strong relay from Sawyer to Bernstein to Bantam catcher Ryder Aubin nipped Sampedro at the plate on a bang-bang play.
* With two outs in the bottom of the eighth, Colditz plunked Mammoth senior
Jack Boyle with a pitch, but the NESCAC's leading base stealer was thrown out by Aubin trying to nab second to end the inning.
* Colditz retired the Mammoths in order in the bottom of the ninth on three fly balls to end the game.
BY THE NUMBERS:
* Amherst outhit Trinity 10-7 in the loss. Orridge was 2 for 3, LaFreniere 2 for 4 with 2 RBI, Sampedro 2 for 5 and McCord 2 for 5 with 2 RBI.
* Aidan Stern was 2 for 3 with 2 runs scored for Trinity and Sawyer was 2 for 5 with 2 RBI.
