Baseball lost in a competitive three-game away series against the Amherst Mammoths over the weekend. After coming up short on Friday in a 2-1 nailbiter, the Ephs were able to win 6-3 in the first game of the doubleheader this Sunday before losing 10-4 in the series-deciding second game. Sunday’s victory ended a winless streak against the Mammoths dating back to 2019.

The team entered the series with serious momentum, having just won five games in a row — three in a series against the Hamilton Continentals (10-13, 2-7 NESCAC), and one each against the Colby Mules (14-9, 2-3 NESCAC) and the Bard Raptors (3-20-1). 

The Ephs’ winning streak started with a ten-inning, 9-7 victory over the Mules in the final game of their week-long training trip in Florida over spring break. “I think Florida was good for us, getting our confidence up, getting our bats right, getting our defense right, getting our pitching right,” outfielder Marcus Burrell ’27 said. “So that last game against Colby, we were hot.”

After a convincing sweep of Hamilton, which co-captain Peyton Rose ’26 attributed to timely hitting, the Ephs took on Amherst with a strong mindset. 

“We wanted to stay loose and stay true to ourselves,” catcher Henry Juan ’25 said. “Based on what we had seen out of ourselves already, we had proved we were a good team, and that gave us a lot of confidence.”

The team also dropped some of the negative energy that it had been associating with their Amherst rivalry, according to Rose. “There was somewhat of a curse feeling around the whole series,” he said. “[This year] we didn’t have that mindset of, ‘Oh, here it goes again,’ it’s more so like, ‘Let’s go, we want this challenge.’”

In the first game of the series against Amherst on Friday, Rose led the team from the mound at Amherst’s Memorial Field, allowing only one run through five innings. Grant Greiner ’28 took over in the sixth  inning and also had a stellar performance, shutting out the Mammoths until the ninth, when they were able to score the game-winning run. The Ephs plated a run in the fourth inning to take an early lead, but were unable to score again in the game, and finished with no hits. 

The Ephs offense was rusty because of the cancellation of two mid-week games due to weather. “We had a full week off from seeing live pitching,” Burrell said. “We can take as many swings in the cage, or off the machine, but that’s completely different from being outside with someone staring right back at you. Maybe a little bit of rust played into [the loss].”

The Eph hitters also tipped their cap to Amherst’s pitcher, Nick Fassert, who threw eight no-hit innings. “He pitched well, he hit his spots,” Juan said. “He had a high-80s fastball and a few offspeed pitches that were really good.”

But the Ephs were proud of their fight, despite the offensive struggles in the 2-1 loss. “That first game was a true testament to us staying in the game, and being mentally tough,” outfielder Ryan Nakajima ’27 said. “To keep it that close with no hits and not get down on ourselves, that takes a lot.”

The doubleheader portion of the series, initially scheduled for Saturday at home, was moved to Sunday due to inclement weather, which gave the Ephs extra time to improve on their offensive woes. 

“We had a practice solely focused on hitting [on Saturday],” pitcher Owen McHugh ’27 said. “We just had to tune in the focus a little more, make the at-bats more competitive.”

Saturday’s practice put the tough offensive showing in perspective for the team. “You really just have to remember that baseball is a crazy volatile game,” Juan said. “You can wake up one day, and the ball will look like a pebble, and you can wake up the next day, and it will look like a beach ball. As a full group of hitters, we hit a lot in Lasell [on Saturday], just to remind ourselves that we’re still a great lineup.”

The team immediately improved its offensive performance in the first game of the Sunday doubleheader, putting up three runs in the first inning and three more in the third en route to a convincing 6-3 victory. 

In the early offensive boom, Nakajima proved clutch in key situations, driving in a run in the first inning and then two more with a double in the third. Burrell went 3-for-4 in the game, and Juan went 3-for-3. 

The team’s hitters credited a change in hitting gameplan as key to their success. “I think we had more of a simplified approach at the plate on Sunday,” Juan said. “Trying to do less.” 

The team also benefited from McHugh’s strong pitching. He threw six innings of one-run baseball and struck out five. “We had McHugh on the bump, and that always gives us a ton of energy because he’s been great this year,” Rose said. “He’s striking a lot of guys out, he’s inducing weak contact, he’s getting ahead in counts. We just have the utmost confidence in him.”

With the win, the Ephs ended their long-standing drought against Amherst, achieving the seniors’ goal of finally beating the Mammoths.  “Our seniors last year, I know how bad they felt,” Burrell said. “They went 0-for-12 against our rival. Our seniors getting that one win [this year] was huge.”

The third game of the series was decisive:  The Ephs fell into a significant early deficit, going down 7-0 in the third inning due to some defensive slip-ups and good hitting from Amherst. 

Team morale was hurt by the poor early play. “The errors killed momentum for us,” Burrell said. “After that rough start, energy was just down a whole lot.” 

Despite the eventual loss, the team was encouraged by the final innings. “We scored four runs at the end — it’s not like we gave up, and that’s a testament to our team this year,” Juan said. 

James O’Connor ’25 and Anthony Lods ’26 hit solo home runs in the seventh and eighth innings, giving the team a late boost. “It just brings a smile to your face,” Nakajima said. “It brings the vibes back up, gets people excited.”

Even after the series loss, the team remains confident heading into the rest of the season, according to Juan. “I feel like game two yesterday, we turned in one of the worst performances of our season,” he said. “Obviously, that stinks, but it doesn’t take away from the body of work that we’ve put together.”

The team currently sits in second place in the NESCAC West Division, with two in-conference series to go, against the Middlebury Panthers (15-10, 6-2 NESCAC) and the Wesleyan Cardinals (8-16, 2-4 NESCAC). 

Buoyed by its strong start, the team harbors lofty goals for the end of the year. “The goal remains the same, which is to win the NESCAC,” Rose said. “It’s Div. III baseball and you can really beat anybody. Coach believes that, we believe that, and we just have that mentality of ‘Why not us?’”