Men’s baseball got off to a rough start against NESCAC rival Trinity last weekend, losing the first two of three games to open conference play.
The Polar Bears then hosted the University of Southern Maine (USM) in Bowdoin’s opener, a dissapointing 7-2 defeat that dropped the team to 9-9.
USM came out swinging in the top of the first and took a two-run lead off of a double. Bowdoin worked its way back and tied the game in the bottom of the third inning when Aaron Rosen ’15 scored on a error by the shortstop. But when the Huskies found themselves with runners on first and third with no outs in the top of the fourth, they capitalized to take a two run lead. Three more runs in the seventh inning sealed the deal for USM and consigned Bowdoin to a home defeat. The Polar Bears used nine different pitchers in the outing, but ultimately the loss fell to Drew LoRusso ’13, who gave up the two runs in the fourth inning.
Bowdoin should have opened at home last weekend against Trinity, but unplayable field conditions in Brunswick necessitated moving the three-game series to Connecticut.
Trinity scored early and often last Friday, and by the bottom of the fourth inning, the Bantams had amassed a 7-0 lead. Bowdoin found some life with RBIs from Cole DiRoberto ’15 and Mike McQuillan ’15 in the bottom of the fourth. Dave Bernstein ’13 relieved captain Oliver Van Zant ’13 on the mound after the fifth inning and gave up only one run in the next two innings, but the Polar Bear bats stayed silent and Bowdoin dropped its first game in the NESCAC East 8-2.
Trinity came out strong again on Saturday in the first game of the doubleheader and had a 6-1 lead going into the bottom of the sixth inning, when Bowdoin scored two runs—one on an RBI single from Van Zant and the others when Erik Jacobson ’15 scored on a wild pitch. Kevin McDonough ’14 blanked the Bantams in the top of seventh in relief of starter Henry Van Zant ’15 and with RBIs from Sam Canales ’15, Taylor and Jacobsen in the bottom of the inning, the Polar Bears tied the game 6-6 to force it into extra innings. However, Trinity scored twice in the top of the eighth with no response from Bowdoin and the Bantams took an 8-6 victory to clinch the series win.
The Polar Bears started hot in the second game of the day. Captain Tim McGarry ’13 knocked in two runs with a double and then stole both third base and home to give Bowdoin a 3-0 lead. Bowdoin added a fourth run in the bottom of the sixth inning when captain Dan Findley ’13 scored on a RBI groundout from Jacobsen. That would be all Christian Martin ’14 would need to finish the game—he gave up only one run in a complete game. The Polar Bears were able to score four runs despite having only one hit, while the Bantams were only able to produce one run off of their eight hits.
The team will host a three-game series against rival Bates this weekend. The first game of the series will be played on this afternoon at 3 p.m., and the teams will face off in a doubleheader on Saturday.
Bowdoin currently sits at .500 and will look to come out of the weekend against Bates with a couple of wins.