After sweeping Colby in a three-game series, the baseball team handled non-conference Husson on Tuesday to improve its win streak to eight games and move into first place in the NESCAC East.
The first game on Saturday was dominated by the pitching of captain Oliver Van Zant ’13.
“He was dominant, just untouchable,” said catcher Duncan Taylor ’14. “They knew he was throwing a fastball, he knew he was going to throw fastballs, but he just placed them so well that they couldn’t hit them.”
Van Zant pitched the fifth no-hitter in Polar Bear history and the first nine-inning no-hitter since 1911, when Leland Means, Class of 1912, threw one against Bates. Van Zant struck out 11 batters and found plenty of offense to back him up with eight hits in the 7-0 victory. Captain Dan Findley ’13 led the hitting, going 2-4 with two RBIs.
Bowdoin took an early lead in the opening game of the doubleheader on Sunday but the teams battled to a 2-2 tie by the end of the seventh and forced an extra inning. Captain Tim McGarry ’13 tripled to lead off the inning and scored after a single by captain Luke Regan ’13 to give Bowdoin the 3-2 lead and the victory.
“Sunday wasn’t as easy. Their pitchers did a little better job, the games were closer,” said Findley. “After Trinity and even Southern Maine—which were out of conference series for us—our energy level has been unbelievable. The firstyears have been awesome, just getting our bench up and kind of revitalizing the older guys.”
Colby took the early lead in the second game, but Bowdoin quickly evened it up again at 2-2. The bats of both teams fell silent until Bowdoin put together a six run effort in the top of the seventh. Henry Van Zant’s full game effort with eleven strike-outs sealed the 8-2 victory.
Bowdoin recently extended their win streak at Husson on Tuesday night. Bowdoin had let an early three-run lead slip away going into the ninth inning.
“We were down 4-3, we could’ve just caved in,” said Findley. “But instead we came out in the top of the ninth and Erik Jacobsen [’15] led off with triple and that was a huge play for us.”
Bowdoin tied the game on a past ball and then took the lead on a scoring error. Sam Canales ’15 knocked in an RBI single to leave the game at 6-4 headed into the bottom of the ninth. That run proved critical as Husson pulled within one before David Zabinsky ’15 shut down the last two batters to seal the 6-5 win.
The baseball team will travel to Williams this weekend for an out of conference matchup. Williams is in the NESCAC West, while Bowdoin is in the East division.
“Williams isn’t in our conference; they’re on the other side,” said Taylor, “but for us they’re still NESCAC rivals and we want to crush them.”
Bowdoin will look to extend its eight game win-streak.
“We need to keep rolling,” said Findley. “We really can’t have any setbacks and if we do then we need to keep that mentality that we’ve had in the past three weeks that we’re the better team and we’re going to win.”