MIDDLETOWN, Conn. – The Wesleyan baseball team rebounded from a 5-1 defeat in game one of Saturday's doubleheader, beating Amherst 7-5 in game two, as the Cardinals secured the weekend series victory over the Mammoths. This marks the third straight season and fourth in the last five that Wesleyan (13-3, 2-1 NESCAC West) has won the regular season series against their Little 3 rival Amherst (9-4, 1-2 NESCAC West).
Game one saw the Mammoth pitchers combine for a one-hitter, as starter Nicholas Giattino went six innings before Tyson Luna retired the side in-order in the 7
th to secure the 5-1 Amherst win.
The Mammoths plated three runs in the 6
th to take a 5-0 lead into the bottom half where Wesleyan had a chance to get back into the game. The first three batters all reached to load the bases for
Evan Diaz '25 who struck out looking.
Jack Carpenter '25 walked to bring in one run but Giattino got
James Marsden '26 to strike out and
Tyler Cosgrove '25 to fly out to end the inning and secure the win.
The series-deciding nine-inning game two of the doubleheader opened with Amherst plating one run in the 1
st before the Cardinal bats came to life in the 3
rd. Halas led off with an infield single and after an
Ernie Little '26 single and
Cole Torino '24 sacrifice bunt, Diaz singled to shortstop to drive in one, but another came in as an errant throw to first allowed Little to advance.
Wesleyan plated three more in the 4
th with
Luke LaSaracina '25 connecting on a two-run homer, his first of the season, over the fence out in left center field. Halas later doubled down the left field line and came all the way home for second as a passed ball by the Amherst catcher allowed in the run.
The Cardinals' starting pitcher
Patrick Murphy '24 escaped damage in the 5
th as he made a great pickoff move to second with Little applying the tag on the baserunner. After a walk put runners back on first and second, Murphy got Jack McDermott to strike out looking and a fielder's choice out finished off the inning.
Cosgrove's RBI single in the bottom of the 5
th made it 6-1 Wesleyan, but Amherst came storming back with a five-run 6
th inning. After the first two Mammoths reached base,
Oliver Dmochowski '27 entered in relief and Amherst recorded back-to-back singles to make it 6-3. With no outs and runners on first and third, Charlie LaFrenier made a beeline for home after Cosgrove lobbed the ball back to Dmochowski during an at-bat. Dmochowski alertly made an accurate throw back to Cosgrove in-time to gun down the steal attempt.
That run saved by Dmochowski loomed large as Amherst went on to score two more runs in the inning, but still trailed 6-5 entering the bottom of the 6
th.
Wesleyan stretched their lead back to two in that bottom half as
Jack Nally '24 led off with a double to left center and after Halas hit a bunt single towards third base, Little came through with an RBI fielder's choice to make it 7-5 after six.
Matt Spada '26 entered in relief of Dmochowski with one runner on and no outs in the 8
th and the sophomore went right to work, recording a fly out and then a pick off play as Tyler McCord was caught stealing second. Spada induced a ground out to short to end the 8
th and followed with a 1-2-3 9
th inning to pick up his second save of the season.
Halas went 3-for-4 with a double and two runs while LaSaracina went 2-for-4 with a home run and triple to lead the Wesleyan offense in game two. Cosgrove, Diaz, and Little each recorded two-hit games.
Murphy went five innings, allowing three runs on three hits to pick up the win.
Wesleyan is back in action on Wednesday for a mid-week non-conference contest against Coast Guard at 4 PM from Dresser Diamond.
