Colby Baseball opens NESCAC East play with win

Tommy Forese

WATERVILLE, Maine — The Colby College baseball team opened NESCAC East play Friday on a high note with a 3-2 win over Trinity College, thanks to terrific pitching performances from starter Tommy Forese and reliever Dan Schoenfeld.

Colby moves to 5-10 overall and 1-0 in the league heading into a big day Saturday. The Colby Baseball/Softball Complex dedication will begin at 10:45 a.m. and the Mules and Trinity will play a doubleheader at noon.

 

Colby scored a lone run in the bottom of the eighth inning to pull out the victory. Mule catcher Andrew Della Volpe singled in Soren Hanson with two outs in the eighth for the third run.

 

The excitement was just beginning for Colby heading into the top of the ninth inning. Schoenfeld struck out the side, including the final out on three pitches. He earned the victory after working the final 2.1 innings.

 

Forese, normally the closer for the Mules, came up big in the start. He allowed five hits over 6.2 innings, struck out two, and walked just one batter.

 

Jed Robinson also had a solid outing for the Bantams (7-11 overall, 2-2 NESCAC East). He went six innings, gave up five hits, struck out four, and walked one.

 

Colby scored the first run of the game in the fifth inning on a lead-off walk. Andrew Currier opened with the free pass, was sacrificed to second by Della Volpe, and scored on Jackson Ward’s single to center field.

 

Dan Schoenfeld

The Mules added another run in the sixth, this time thanks to Zach Ellenthal getting hit by a pitch to open the inning. Ellenthal moved to second on Dan Csaplar’s single, and went to third when Hanson was hit by a pitch. Currier followed with a sacrifice fly to bring in Ellenthal.

Trinity tied the game in the top of the seventh inning. Brendan Pierce had a one-out walk, fouling off five pitches. Daniel Pidgeon smacked a double to left field to push Pierce to third base. Pierce scored on an RBI ground out by Nicholas DiBenedetto and Pidgeon came in on a single by Scott Cullinane. With runners on first and third, Schoenfeld entered the game and was able to get a fly ball to center field.

 

Cullinane was the lone hitter in the game with two hits.

 

Colby 3, Trinity 2

Trinity     000#000#200–2#5#1

Colby      000#011#01x–3#6#0

Tommy Forese, Dan Schoenfeld (W) and Andrew Della Volpe; Jed Robinson, Mclane Hill (7, L), Sam Jordan (8) and Scott Cullinane. 2B: Daniel Pidgeon (T).