NORTHBOROUGH, Mass. -- The Bates baseball team played a pair of tight non-conference games with Middlebury on Saturday, winning game one 2-1 and dropping game two in extra innings 4-3.
Game One: Bates 2, Middlebury 1 (7 innings)
Connor Colombo (1-2) tossed six innings of two-hit ball, striking out seven batters along the way to lead the Bobcats to a 2-1 victory. The lone run Middlebury scored was unearned.
Colombo '16 (Mendon, Mass.) earned his first win of the 2016 season.
The Panthers took an early 1-0 lead in the top of the first.
With two away, Max Araya doubled to deep left-center. Ryan McCarthy '17 (Plaistow, N.H.) almost made a spectacular play on the ball but it dropped in at the wall.
Jason Lock reached on a Bates error and Araya scored on the play to make it 1-0 in favor of the Panthers. Colombo struck out the next batter to end the inning.
Bates responded in the bottom of the second against Middlebury starter Colby Morris (0-1).
With two outs and nobody on, Asher MacDonald '18 (Hillsborough, N.C.) singled. Eric Vilanova '17 (Bridgeport, Conn.) hit a ball out to dead center for his first career home run. The long ball gave Bates a 2-1 lead they did not relinquish.
Colombo (1-2) used the "K" to get out of a jam in the third. With runners at second and third and one out, he struck out back-to-back hitters to get out of the inning unscathed.
The Panthers threatened again in the fourth, putting runners at first and second with one out. But Colombo got Johnny Read to hit into a 4-6-3 double play, ending the inning.
Colombo retired the side in order in the fifth and struck out a pair of batters in the sixth to finish his day on a strong note.
Rob DiFranco '16 (Melrose, Mass.) entered the game in the seventh inning and got into a little trouble. A single and a walk put runners at first and second with nobody out. The Panthers bunted the runners over, putting the tying and go-ahead runs in scoring position.
But DiFranco got the next two hitters to ground back to the mound, ending the game and securing his first save of the year.
MacDonald and Samuel Warren '16 (Norfolk, Va.) each went 2-3 for at the plate for Bates in game one. One of Warren's hits was a double.
Game Two: Middlebury 4, Bates 3 (9 innings)
Sam Graf hit a walk-off home run in the bottom of the ninth to clinch a 4-3 victory for the Panthers in game two of Saturday's doubleheader.
Bates (5-6) fell behind 3-0 in the contest before rallying with a three-run fourth inning.
The Panthers (1-1) scored a pair of runs off Bates starter Connor Speed '18 (San Diego, Calif.) in the second inning.
With one out, Joe Macdonald drew a walk and Phil Bernstein singled. Brendan Donohue doubled both runners home to put the Panthers up 2-0.
They added another run in the third. With two outs and nobody on, Araya singled. John Luke doubled in Araya to extend the Middlebury lead to 3-0.
But John Dinucci '17 (West Hartford, Conn.) got the rally going in the top of the fourth with a double off Middlebury starter John Bunting. Conor Reenstierna '16 (Lincoln, Mass.) doubled in Dinucci to cut the deficit to 3-1.
Brendan Fox '17 (West Hartford, Conn.) continued his white hot start to the 2016 season with an opposite field two-run home run to tie the game at three. It's Fox's first career home run.
Through 11 games, Fox is hitting .500 with a homer and 12 RBI.
Neither team scored again until Graf's homer in the bottom of the ninth.
Speed went six innings, allowing three runs on eight hits, walking one and striking out four in a no-decision.
The Middlebury bullpen turned in an effective performance with Conor Himstead, Jake Stalcup and Dylan Takamori (1-0) combining to toss five shutout innings.
Chris Ward '16 (Pasadena, Calif.) entered the game in the bottom of the seventh and retired the side in order to send the game to extra innings.
He walked a tight rope in the bottom of the eighth as the Panthers loaded the bases with one out. Ward (0-1) took two consecutive counts to three-and-two, before striking out both hitters looking to get out of the jam.
But with one away in the bottom of the ninth, Graf hit a Ward offering over the left field fence to win the game for the Panthers.
Bates only tallied five hits in game two. Dinucci and Fox both tallied multi-hit games with Dinucci going 2-4 with a double and a run scored and Fox going 2-2 with a homer, a run scored, two RBIs and two walks.
The Bobcats are back in action Sunday when they visit Husson at 1:00 p.m.