Trinity Rolls Past Amherst in Game 1 of Baseball Championship
Courtesy Trinity Sports Information
HARTFORD, Conn. – Senior RHP Tim Kiely (Swampscott, Mass.) struck out nine without a walk and allowed eight its and one run over eight innings while junior 2B Ryan Piacentini (Portland, Maine) went 2-for-4 with a three-run homer, as Trinity downed visiting Amherst, 9-1, in game one of the 2008 NESCAC Baseball Championship Saturday morning.
Trinity improves to 35-0, extending the nation’s best-ever Division III baseball season start and tying the College record for wins. The Lord Jeffs fall to 22-11-1 and will play Williams College in the second round of the loser’s bracket. Tufts edged Williams, 1-0, in the other first round game today at Wesleyan University.
Trinity took a 5-0 lead after the first two innings, as sophomore OF James Wood (Windham, N.H.) delivered a two-out, RBI single in the first frame and Piacentini highlighted a four-run second with a three-run shot high over the left field fence. The Bantams added two more runs in the fifth inning on a Lord Jeff error and a pinch-hit, RBI single by senior Chandler Barnard (Lubbock, Texas) with two outs, and two more in the seventh inning on a solo homer by junior tri-captain C Sean Killeen (Greenfield, Mass.) and a sacrifice fly by senior SS Tom DiBenedetto (Fort Myers, Fla.).
Kiely improves to 9-0, while Amherst freshman starter Pat Harris (Rochester, N.Y.) drops to 3-1 although five of the seven runs he allowed over 4.2 innings were unearned due to four Amherst fielding miscues. Wood had two hits for Trinity, while freshman Brian Merrigan (Holbrook, Mass.) and senior Nick Boehm (Shaker Heights, Ohio) each had a pair of singles for the Lord Jeffs. Amherst junior 3B Brendan Powers (Walpole, Mass.) hit an RBI single in the eighth frame to account for the only run for the visitors.
