West Massachusetts News

The second game of the North Carolina portion of the Ephs spring trip was against the Brevard Tornados. Williams stole the lead late and defeated the Tornados 14-12 on Monday. Sophomore LHP Max Hart was on the bump for the Ephs in this contest.

Both offenses were strong at the plate as the Williams College Ephs collected 15 hits and the Tornados 10 in the high-scoring affair. The Ephs seem to have taken a liking to the long ball this season, hitting another 4 four-baggers in the contest (Brown, Juan, Giove, Cohn), bringing their season total to fourteen in nine games. 

Brevard got the scoring started early, scoring two runs in the bottom of the 1st. The Tornados leadoff hitter Burchett singled to start their offensive day. Able to steal both second and third base, Burchett scored on a ground ball to second. Working counts well, Brevard plated another run with a single to left by Granata.

The Ephs answered back mightily in the next half inning. A miscommunication by the Tornado outfielders allowed Anthony Lods to reach second base on a double. The following batter, Matthew Brown, proceeded to laser a fastball over the left centerfield fence for a 2-run home run. The power kept on coming for the Ephs as red-hot catcher Henry Juan hit a 3-run home run to left centerfield as well. Not one to miss out on a slug fest, second baseman Michael Giove also ripped a fastball over the left field fence to cap off the Ephs' big inning. 

Despite surrendering 6 runs, Brevard's offense fought back to tie it up in their half of the second. The offensive onslaught by Tornados was led by Morton, Clark, and Vasquez, who each had RBIs in the inning. 

Both teams scored a pair of runs in the third inning. The Ephs played some good old-fashioned small ball by working a pair of walks and steals to get two runners into scoring position for Luca Lopetrone who lined a single to left to score one. They were able to steal another run on a wild pitch. The Tornados countered by showing off some power, muscling a 2 run home run of their own to left field. 

Despite letting up some early runs, Hart pitched a strong game; the box score didn't necessarily tell the whole story as many of the hits he let up were dinks-and-dunkers. After the home run in the bottom of the third, Hart lasted three more batters, leaving the game with a tied score with men on second and third. Enter Nick Skiera. 

Skiera forced a ground out to get the Ephs out of the jam, giving the team a surge of confidence that they would be able to keep fighting. The junior pitcher would go 2.1 innings, relatively tempering the Tornados line up, only letting up two runs (zero earned.) "Nick has been a pit bull in his couple appearances so far this year—controlling the zone, forcing weak contact, keeping us in the driver's seat of games. He's going to be a key player when we get into NESCAC play," noted Eph head coach Bill Barrale.  

Jake Martin replaced Skiera to keep the lead intact for the Ephs. Martin was able to effectively mix three different pitches to keep the Tornado offense at bay for three innings. Although he walked a pair of batters, he did not allow a hit and stifled many powerful bats in the opposing lineup. During Martin's tenure, the Ephs offense was back at it again to take the lead back. Jakob Cohn hit a solo homer in the top of the sixth; Cole Whitehouse singled on a 2-0 count, scoring one run; Brown was hit by a pitch, bringing in another . The score after six would be 11-10 Ephs. In the 7th inning Whitehouse came up big again, smoking a line drive double that would land at the base of the right center field fence, clearing the bases, moving the score to 14-10. 

James O'Connor came in from first base to act as the closer for the Ephs. Brevard would not go down without a fight, scoring two runs on a double to right field by Burchett. However, O'Connor would get the job done, inducing three fly outs to right field to seal the deal, giving Williams a great win over a tough team. 

The Ephs will take on #18 Methodist for the last game of their spring trip on Tuesday at 6 PM. 

Original source can be found here.