BEVERLY, Mass. – In a matchup of the fourth and fifth ranked teams in New England, the Endicott baseball team dropped a pair of non-conference games to NESCAC opponent Amherst on Saturday afternoon, falling 3-1 in game one and 12-0 in game two. The Gulls saw their 2014 record fall to 16-7 overall heading into their Sunday doubleheader with CCC foe Curry.
Game One: Endicott 1, Amherst 3
Endicott took a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the fourth on a solo home run to right field by senior first baseman Brett Holmgren (Middleboro, Mass.) and saw sophomore righty JJ Branch (Milford, Mass.) shut down the Jeffs lineup through five innings, but Amherst took the lead with two runs in the top of the sixth with one more in the seventh to take game one.
Amherst sophomore Mike Odenwaelder (Goshen, Conn.) stroked a double down the left field line to score Connor Gunn (Kingsport, Tenn.) to tie the game at 1-1 with one out in the sixth. After a groundout to first push Odenwaelder to third, junior outfielder Tyler Jacobs (Westport, Conn.) singled to left to put the Lord Jeffs ahead 2-1.
Amherst added another run in the top of the seventh on a sacrifice fly to deep left by Taiki Kasuga (New York, N.Y.) and watched as senior pitcher Dylan Driscoll (Mount Airy, Md.) hurled a complete game for his fifth win of the season. Driscoll allowed one earned run on six hits, no walks, and six strikeouts as he improved to 5-0.
Branch pitched well for the Gulls, going seven innings, allowing eight base runners on five hits and three walks with one strikeout.
Game Two: Endicott 0, Amherst 12
A 5-for-5 performance at the top of the line with three runs scored and one RBI by sophomore Andrew Vandini (Walpole, Mass.) paced an Amherst offense that produced 19 hits in game two. Kasuga, Gunn, and Jacobs added two RBI apiece and five other players pitched in with a RBI in the 12-0 shutout by the Jeffs. Both of Kasuga's RBIs came in the fourth inning as his two-run shot to left made it a 9-0 game after a seven-run top of the first.
Amherst junior John Cook (Winnetka, Ill.) improved to 2-2 after going seven shutout innings, allowing just four hits, and striking out 11 Gulls.
Endicott's only batter with multiple hits was sophomore Matthew Paola (Middlebury, Conn.) who went 2-for-4 with a pair of singles.