TUCSON, Ariz. — The Middlebury College baseball team won once in five tries to open its spring break trip to Tucson, Ariz. The 2-5 Panthers were set to play Gustavus Adolphus on Wednesday and then square off with NESCAC rival Williams in a three-game set on Friday and Saturday before returning to Vermont.
On this past Saturday the Panthers opened by splitting a doubleheader with Allegheny, losing the opener, 12-6, before taking game two, 11-10 in extra innings. 
In game one, Allegheny exploded for eight runs on eight hits in the second inning on their way to the win. The Gators added a pair of runs in the third before the Panthers got on the board in the sixth on a single by Drew Coash and Grant Elgarten.
Allegheny added two in the seventh to go up 12-1, before Middlebury scored five times on four hits in the bottom half of the inning with five runs on four hits. Singles by Sam Graf and Jason Lock and Johnny Read’s three-run homer keyed the outburst. Colby Morris (1-1) suffered the loss.
In the nightcap, Middlebury scored four runs in the top of the eighth and held on for the 11-10 victory.
The Panthers scored in the first when Ryan Rizzo singled and came home on a Graf sacrifice fly.
In the second, Brooks Carroll tripled to plate Sebastian Sanchez and Andrew Hennings. Justan Han scored Carroll with a sacrifice fly, and a Rizzo triple and Graf single made it 5-0.
After Allegheny rallied to tie the game, a Rizzo single made it 6-5 in the sixth, but Allegheny scored twice in the bottom of the inning to go up, 7-6.
In the seventh, a Sanchez two-out double scored Brendan Donohue, who had singled, to force extra innings. Middlebury struck with four runs in the eighth to go on top 11-7. Han doubled and Rizzo reached on a bunt single. Graf reached on a strike out following a wild pitch, and Lock doubled both runners home. Donohue and Raj Palekar singled in two more runs.
In the bottom of the eighth, Ethan Palak’s two-out, three-run homer made it 11-10. Francis Faiello then tripled, but Jake Stalcup came on in relief to earn his first save of the year with a strikeout. Dylan Takamori (1-0) picked up the win.
Rizzo had four hits and scored twice, Graf singled twice and drove in a pair, while Carroll tripled, singled and drove in two runs. Han singled, doubled and scored two runs.
On Sunday, Middlebury led late leads slip away in losses to Grinnell, 7-6, and Gustavus Adolphus, 10-8. 
Grinnell took a 3-0, before the Panthers scored twice in the top of the fourth. Drew Coash drove in the first run when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, and an Elgarten sacrifice fly made it 3-2.
The Pioneers scored twice in the sixth, but Middlebury made it 5-3 on a Rizzo RBI double.
In the eighth, the Panthers pushed three runs across. Lock walked and scored on a throw after an Elgarten hit. Gray Goolsby then stroked a two-run double to make it 6-5 Panthers. 
But a Panther error allowed the tying and winning runs to score in the bottom of the inning, making Stalcup the hard-luck loser.
In Sunday’s nightcap, Gustavus Adolphus took an early 2-0 lead. Middlebury made it 2-1 in the top of the third on a Lock single, and then scored three times in the third to make it 4-2, with an RBI single from Graf and a two-run double from Lock doing the damage.
Gustavus cut the score to 4-3 in the fifth inning, but Middlebury regained its two-run lead in the seventh when Lock tripled and scored on a Hennings single.
The Gusties broke through for five runs in the bottom of the seventh and added two more runs in the eighth to make it 10-6. Middlebury created the final score in the ninth when Hayden Smith delivered a two-run double 
Lock had three hits and three RBI. Rizzo went four-for-five with a double, while Hennings added three hits and an RBI.
Middlebury starter Robert Erickson went six innings and allowed three runs (two earned) and came away with a no decision. Justin Legowski (0-1) took the loss, giving up five runs in one inning, but only one of those runs was earned.
On Monday, Adolphus improved to 8-3 by outslugging the Panthers, 13-12. The Panthers took an early 3-0 lead, but the Gusties rallied for five runs in the top of the third to go on top.
Middlebury struck for seven runs in the fourth on singles by Carroll, Graf and Rizzo, Lock’s three-run double, two Gustier errors, a double steal, and bases-loaded walks to Rizzo and Han.
The teams traded runs in the fifth to make it 11-6, Middlebury, with a Read single plating the run for the Panthers. But the Gusties erupted for six runs in the sixth and added a key insurance run in the seventh. They then escaped a bases-loaded jam in the seventh by allowing only one run when Hennings was hit by a pitch. The Panthers threatened in the ninth also: Phil Bernstein singled and Hennings bunted him to second, but Middlebury could not push the tying run across.
 Colin Waters (0-1) suffered the loss, allowing seven earned runs in 5.1 innings with three strikeouts. Takamori tossed two innings of scoreless relief, while Conor Himstead pitched a scoreless ninth.
Lock doubled twice, singled twice, scored three runs and picked up three RBI. Bernstein drove in two runs with three hits, Graf finished with a pair of hits, and Coash tripled and scored.