The baseball team’s frustrations continued this weekend, as it dropped all three games of a three-game series against Little Three rival Williams College.
Williams, which is 20-7 overall and 9-3 in the NESCAC, boasts nine seniors and six returning starters from a team that went 29-11 overall in 2006. Last season, all six returning starters batted at least .311.
At the top of Williams’ returning group is All-American, All-New England and 2006 NESCAC Player of the Year catcher Chris Kenney. Last spring, Kenney batted an astounding .500. Williams also returned All-New England and All-NESCAC shortstop Paul Morgan, 2006 NESCAC Rookie of the Year pitcher Dan Benz, and All-NESCAC Second Team selection Sean Gleeson.
The Cards, coming into the contest 11-17 after two straight losses, struck first in Saturday’s first game, scoring a run in the first after Drew Dominguez ’09 walked, stole second, reached third on a passed ball and then scored on a Chris Simpson ’08 groundout to shortstop.
In the second inning though, the Ephs began to go to work, scoring three runs off of three hits. The teams then traded runs in the third to make the score 4-2 Williams.
After the third, the Cards’ production ground to a halt. Wesleyan managed only two more hits for the rest of the game. The Ephs continued to hit well however, producing another five runs and winning by a 9-2 count in seven innings on 11 hits.
In Saturday’s second game, the Ephs exploded out of the gate, opening up a 9-1 lead after only three innings. Seven Ephs had multiple hits against the struggling Wesleyan pitching staff. The Cards also floundered at the plate, the lone bright spot being John DelGiudice ’07, who had three hits on four at-bats.
On Sunday, the two teams traveled to Williamstown to finish the three-game series. Wesleyan’s offense scored one run off in the first, but couldn’t score again in the game despite managing seven hits off of the stingy Eph hurlers. The Cards left eight runners on base over the course of the game and lost 7-1.
With the three-game sweep, Williams clinched the NESCAC West while Wesleyan dropped completely out of playoff contention.
Next up for the Cards is a home match-up against Westfield State on May 1.
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