ATLANTA, Ga. — The Middlebury College baseball team hit a rough patch this past weekend in Atlanta, dropping three games to fall to 1-5. The Panthers return to action on Saturday in California on their annual spring break trip, which will culminate the following weekend with a three-game set with NESCAC rival Williams.
On this past Sunday Emory (8-9) held off a Middlebury rally to win, 10-7.
Emory scored seven runs on seven hits off Panther starter Colin Waters (0-2) in two-plus innings, taking a 6-0 lead before the Panthers scored twice in the top of the third on a Kevin Woodring homer after a Brooks Carroll single.
Grant Elgarten singled in Carroll in the fifth to make it 7-3, but Emory scored three in the bottom of the inning to take a seven-run lead.
The Panthers answered with four runs in the seventh on singles by Carroll, Hayden Smith and Phil Bernstein, a Woodring double, and an error, but came no closer. George Goldstein tossed three innings of scoreless, one-hit relief for Middlebury.
On Saturday the Panthers played a pair, opening with an 11-4 loss to Stevens Institute of Technology and then falling to Emory, 10-2.
Stevens (3-5) opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with five runs on just two hits off tough-luck lower Colby Morris (1-1) and three Panther errors. Morris went 6.2 innings, allowing seven runs, three earned, on six hits. Jack Miller allowed the final runs in 1.2 innings of work.
Middlebury got on the scoreboard in the bottom of the eighth with three runs. Justin Han singled to score Henry Strmecki and Andrew Corcoran, who both walked. Smith later singled in Sam Graf, who was hit by a pitch. A Han sacrifice fly scored Corcoran in the ninth.
Chandler Brierley picked up the win for Stevens, allowing one hit over seven innings with nine strikeouts.
Emory broke open the nightcap late after the Panthers scored in the top of the sixth to make it 3-2. Jake Dianno’s sacrifice fly scored Graf in that inning. In the second Woodring singled and eventually was forced in when Strmecki was hit by a pitch.
The Eagles put the game away with seven runs in the bottom of the seventh.
Robert Erickson (0-1) tossed the first five innings for the Panthers and suffered the loss, allowing three runs on eight hits with three strikeouts. Justin Legowski pitched the next 1.1 innings, giving up five runs on three hits, while Andrew Martinson recorded two outs while allowing a pair of runs on two hits. Bobby Sullivan struck out the side in the eighth.