Courtesy Bowdoin Sports Information

Box Score

BRUNSWICK, Maine - The red-hot bats of the Middlebury College baseball team continued to dominate the NESCAC Tournament on Saturday afternoon, as the Panthers (23-9) posted a 12-10 win over Bowdoin College (28-7-1) in Game Four of the Championship.

The win, combined with the Panthers 14-1 win over Tufts in the morning advanced Middlebury to Game Six of Championship. They will face the winner of Sunday morning's Bowdoin/Tufts contest that is slated for 9:00 a.m. in Brunswick.

Middlebury jumped ahead with runs in each of the first three innings to grab an 8-1 edge going into the bottom of the third. Joe Ramoin keyed the first-inning rally with a two-run double, while an RBI single by Nick Lefeber in the second chased Bowdoin starter Ricky Leclerc from the mound.

The Polar Bears rallied to score three times in the bottom of the third to cut the deficit to 8-4. Leclerc doubled to score Jared Lemieux and scored later in the frame on an RBI single by Nick Lawler. The squads each scored twice in the fourth frame, and Middlebury added two more in the seventh, highlighted by an RBI single by John Lanahan to make it a 12-6 game.

But the Polar Bears refused to go away, scoring three times in the bottom of the inning on a sac fly from Leclerc and RBI hits from Berte and Lawler to cut the gap to 12-9. In the eighth, a Jon Lawrie double scored Chris McCann to make it 12-10, but Panther reliever Christian Hansen was able to settle down and retire Bowdoin 1-2-3 in the ninth to seal the win.

Rookie Matt Joseph (3-0) was a horse for Middlebury, tossing 6.2 innings, allowing six earned runs, striking out nine, walking eight and scattering ten hits to get the win. Leclerc (4-2) took the loss for Bowdoin, who used five different pitchers in the game.

Lanahan was outstanding, going 5-5 at the plate for Middlebury, who batted an astounding .464 as a team on Saturday with 11 doubles. Bowdoin was led by Lawler's three hits in the game.