Major League Baseball’s one-game, wild-card playoff — an arbitrary gimmick devised in 2012 — is coming under increased scrutiny this year. The format pits the top two non-division winners in each league against each other in a one-game playoff, the winner of which advances to the real playoffs.
The Amherst College women’s golf team kicked off its season with a fourth-placed finish in a field of 12 teams at the two-day NYU Fall Invitational last weekend. Led by an impressive debut from first-year Kate Weiss, Amherst posted a team score of 642 at the par-72 Spook Rock Golf Course.
Weiss paced the squad, finishing tied for eighth, with a 36-hole score of 156. The first-year started with a one-over 73 in the first round on Saturday, good for the second-best individual score of the day. Weiss then posted an 83 on Sunday to cap her weekend.
The Amherst College field hockey team is still hoping to find its momentum after picking up a midweek victory over Keene State before falling to NESCAC foe Middlebury over the weekend. The Jeffs did rebound again, with a 6-1 rout of Springfield College on Tuesday night.
The team bounced back well in its Wednesday contest against Keene after suffering a tough loss to Bowdoin last Saturday.
They secured an early lead over the Owls, as Caroline Fiore ’18 netted her first goal of the season just 11 minutes into play.
This past weekend at the Duke Nelson Invitational, the Amherst men’s golf team posted a 36-hole score of 650, good for share of 16th place, along with UMass Dartmouth, in the field of 25 teams.
At the Middlebury-hosted tournament, sophomore Danny Langa impressed with his two-day total of 156. This excellent performance earned him 17th overall among the field. He improved upon his 81 on Saturday with a 75 the next day, which was the best 18-hole score on the team.
With 17 seconds remaining in Saturday’s contest, Amherst College forward Emily Hester ’17 notched the game-winning goal to lift the Jeffs (4-0-0) to a 2-1 victory over conference rival Middlebury (1-1-1). With the win, the undefeated Jeffs captured their third conference win of the year.
This past weekend, the women’s cross country team started its season at the UMass Invitational. The team finished in fifth place overall as the only Division III school in a six-team field.
Impressively, the Jeffs had seven runners that contributed to the final score. Captain Savanna Gornisiewicz ’17 was first among Amherst runners with a time of 18:31, good for 11th place in the 82-person field.
Right behind her was first-year Lizzy Lacy, who finished her first race in the purple and white in a time of 18:32.
Men’s soccer began the 2015 season impressively, scoring five goals over two games to move to 2-0 on the season and 1-0 in the NESCAC.
Less than five minutes into the Jeffs’ season opener on the road against New England College, Amherst’s offensive attack began to impose its will on the Pilgrims’ defense.
