The Amherst baseball team had another successful week, cruising to a victory over Castleton State Thursday before a three-game sweep of Middlebury this past weekend.

On April 17, Amherst scored early and often in a 9-2 win over Castleton, capitalizing on the Spartans’ nine errors in the game. In the bottom of the first, with runners on second and third, Conner Gunn ’16 hit a sacrifice fly to left field to bring in the first run, and Alex Hero ’14 followed with an RBI single to center. Amherst scored two more runs in the bottom of the third before Castleton finally got on the board in the top of the fourth. The Jeffs would later add another run when Hero brought in Taiki Kasuga ’14 with an RBI groundout.

There was a lull in the scoring until the bottom of the seventh, when Mike Odenwaelder ’16 scored another run for the Jeffs on a throwing error by the right fielder. Castelton answered in the eighth by putting its second run up, but the Jeffs scored the final two runs of the game in the bottom of the eighth.

Quinn Saunders-Kolberg ’14 turned in an excellent performance on the mound, allowing just one run on four hits over seven innings.

On Friday, April 18, Amherst traveled to take on Middlebury in a three-game series. In game one, the Jeffs took the lead in the second inning when Hero singled, stole second and third and scored on a ground-out by Yanni Thanopoulos ’17. No runs were scored until the top of the fifth, when the Jeffs put two more on the board with the help of some walks and aggressive base running. That inning accounted for the last of the offense for the day, as Amherst came away with a hard-fought 3-0 victory. Dylan Driscoll ’14 earned the win in another shutdown outing, striking out five over seven innings.

The nightcap went 10 innings, as pitching dominated both sides. Amherst put the first run on the board in the top of the fifth, when Dave Cunningham ’16 scored on a single by Anthony Spina ’17. On the mound, John Cook ’15 didn’t allow a Panther run until the bottom of the seventh, when Middlebury’s Jason Lock hit a lead-off double and later scored on a ground-out.

With the ninth at 1-1, Amherst broke through in the 10th on a home run by junior Tyler Jacobs. In a rare feat, the economical Cook pitched all ten innings, giving up only five hits, one walk and one run on 126 pitches. His performance earned him NESCAC Player of the Week Honors.

The Jeffs closed the weekend with an 11-3 win on Saturday. Midd. put the first run on the board in the bottom of the first, but the Jeffs answered with a huge second inning, tallying five runs. They added another run in the fourth and put five more on the board between the seventh and eighth innings to secure the victory. Keenan Szulik ’16, Eric Kotin ’14 and Robert Cahill ’14 gave up a total of only six hits over nine innings. Thanopoulous led the offense, going 4-for-5 from the plate with three RBI, and Kasuga and Gunn each tallied three hits.

The Jeffs face Hamilton on Wednesday and Wesleyan this weekend in a crucial home game series, where they hope to earn the No. 1 seed for the NESCAC tournament. This meeting will the first since the two teams squared off in the 2013 NESCAC Championship, where Amherst won on the road to become conference champs.