After a rainy Saturday washed away the first game of a weekend series at Middlebury, Wesleyan was ready Sunday for a double-header in Vermont. In the first game, a seven-inning affair, the Cardinals captured a 9-5 win. The Panthers got payback later that day, beating Wesleyan 13-5 in the nightcap. Drew Dominguez ’09 led the way for the Cardinals, blasting a home run in both games.

Dusty Mones ’09 pitched a complete first game, scattering seven hits and a walk while striking out five. A rough first inning that included three Middlebury runs on three Wesleyan errors left the team down 3-1 early. The Cards scored in the top of the second and the Panthers added another run in the bottom of the third. Going into the fifth down 4-2, Wesleyan was able to battle back with a two-run home run by Dominguez that tied the game at 4-4. Derek Dettorre’s ’11 single then drove in the go-ahead run and the Cardinals never looked back. Wesleyan tacked on four more in the seventh courtesy of an RBI single by Garrett Lamborn ’09, a wild pitch, and a two-run single by Kyle Weiss ’12. The Panthers notched a run in the bottom of the seventh, but Mones snuffed the rally as the game ended 9-5 in Wesleyan’s favor.

Middlebury was able to get revenge a few hours later. After going down 4-0, Wesleyan scored four times in the top of the fourth to tie the game, helped by Dominguez’s three-run home run. Middlebury took back the lead at the bottom of the inning, going ahead 6-4 before running away with the game in the fifth. The Panthers crossed the plate seven times on the strength of seven hits and a walk and went on to win the contest 13-5.

“We played hard and you can never really complain about a split in NESCAC play,” Lamborn said. “However, I think that we all know that we are better than Middlebury and would have liked to have taken two.”

Dominguez was the undisputed star of the weekend, with a .667 batting average in the two games and a 1.556 slugging percentage. Mones also had quite a showing on the mound in the first game, with five strikeouts.

“The first game, Dusty came up big again with another complete game gem, only allowing two earned runs, and [Dominguez] really picked us up in both games with the stick,” Lamborn said.

In the second game, Brett Yarusi ’12, Mike Barsotti ’12 Dominguez, and Jon Sargent ’09 all action on the mound.

This weekend leaves Wesleyan in second place in the NESCAC West division at 3-2, one game behind Little Three rival Williams. The Cardinals currently sit at 9-9 overall.

Wesleyan travels to Elms College for a Wednesday evening matchup before a home NESCAC weekend against Hamilton. The postponed game against Middlebury will be rescheduled before the end of the season if needed to decide which team qualifies for the playoffs.