Hartford, Conn. – Junior tri-captain C Alex Rodriguez (Windsor, Conn.) went 3-for-5 with three runs, a double, a stolen base, and three RBIs to lead the Trinity College Bantams to a 10-5 victory over the visiting Amherst College Mammoths in baseball action this evening on Murren Family Field at DiBenedetto Stadium.  Trinity improves to 24-5 with its fifth win in a row, heading into a three-game home series against New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) East Division rival Tufts beginning on Friday at 3 p.m.  Amherst falls to 14-11 with its third consecutive setback.  The Mammoths host Springfield on Thursday at 3:30 p.m.

Trinity jumped out to a 5-0 lead after three innings, but led just 5-4 after five innings.  The Bantams scored four times in the eighth frame to pull away.  Seven Bantams saw time on the hill and combined to allow nine hits and four earned runs with seven walks and six strikeouts.  First-year righty Cameron Crowley (Downers Grove, Ill.) improved to 6-0, earning the win by pitching the most of any Bantam hurler with his two full innings in the fifth and sixth.  Senior tri-captain Andrew Ferrero (San Francisco, Calif.) started and took the loss, allowing three hits and five runs (two earned) with a walk and two strikeouts for the Mammoths.  Sophomore Stephen Burke (Los Angeles, Calif.) paced Amherst offensively with three hits and a double.  Amherst committed three errors and Trinity made two, while the Bantams stole 10 bases, the highest team total since 1887, including four by junior OF Brett Stevenson (Southport, Conn.).

Trinity senior CF Geoff Stillman (Scituate, Mass.) drove home the first run on a two-out, infield single in the second inning, and the second came around to score thanks to an Amherst overthrow on the play.  The Bantams scored twice more early in the second inning on another Amherst error, and added their fifth run on Amherst's third error of the game.  The Mammoths scored four runs in the fourth inning to make the score, 5-4, including two on RBI singles by sophomores Kyler Kopacz (New Lenox, Ill.) and Kai Terada-Herzer (Honolulu, Hawaii).   

Trinity scored once in the fifth on an RBI double by junior Mack Lauder (Chappaqua, N.Y.) and Amherst answered with a run in the sixth on rookie Daniel Quin's (Issaquah, Wash.) second RBI groundout of the game to make the score, 6-5.  The Bantams opened things up in the eighth inning with four runs on an RBI single by junior OF Matt Koperniak (Adams, Mass.), a double steal, and a two-out, two-run single by Rodriguez.  Amherst loaded the bases in the ninth stanza, but Trinity freshman righty Will Simeone (Milton, Mass.) recorded the final out on a grounder to second base.