Around the Herd: April 4 to April 11 in Athletics

In this week’s edition of Around the Herd: men’s and women’s tennis triumph over Hamilton, track and field breaks records at Amherst Spring Fling, and more.

Men’s Tennis

This past weekend, the men’s team improved their regular season record to 7-4 after a 7-2 win against Hamilton College. The Mammoths were able to sweep the doubles matches, and only lost in their first two singles seats. Georgios Chaidemenos ’26 and Jakob Esterowitz ’26 were able to 6-0 their first sets.

Women’s Tennis

The women’s team also faced Hamilton this past weekend, recording the same 7-2 victory as the men’s team. With this, they extended their winning streak to five games, having only lost to Pomona-Pitzer so far this season. Against Hamilton, Calista Sha ’23 was able to 6-0 in her second set as the Mammoths dominated throughout the ladder.

Baseball

The Mammoths played three games against Tufts over the weekend but were only able to win one of them.

After falling down a run early in their first game, Amherst was able to fight back to take the lead in the bottom of the sixth off of two separate RBI doubles from Jack Sampedro ’25 and Jack Dove ’23. Nevertheless, the Jumbos were able to hit a few singles to score two runs and take the lead in the top of the seventh. The Mammoths earned another run, but it proved futile as Tufts won 4-3.

The Mammoths absolutely dominated the next game. The team immediately gave up two runs at the start but then scored 15 runs completely unanswered to win the game 15-2. Javier Irizarry ’24 scored four runs, and Sampedro recorded six RBIs in the win.

After leading for most of the game, Tufts was able to score five runs in the eighth inning to retake the lead. The Mammoths needed two runs in the ninth to at least push the game to extra innings, and they delivered. Jackson Reydel ’23 got an RBI with a ground out, and Irizarry was able to hit an incredible clutch single to score Michael Perales. Unfortunately, they were unable to pull out the win as Tufts came out with an 8-7 win through ten innings.

Last night’s game against Brandeis started like their second one against Tufts as the Mammoths fell down two runs in the first inning. Yet again, they bounced back with eight runs in the second inning, only letting the Judges score once as they dominated the game to win 14-3.

Softball

While the softball team has been unstoppable as of late, recording only three losses so far this season, they could not secure a victory in their four games this week. They lost 1-9 and 2-8 in their doubleheader against Tufts, only playing five innings in the first game due to the eight-run mercy rule. On Sunday, in their doubleheader against Middlebury, the Mammoths were unable to follow up on both of their early leads, losing 3-5 and 5-8. Still, the team holds an impressive 13-7 record.

Men’s Lacrosse

The Men’s Lacrosse team went up to Maine this weekend to face Colby, who have not been able to secure a single win against a NESCAC opponent. The game started off tied at 2-2, but a beautiful strike by Jake Bennett ’24 was able to kick off a series of six unanswered goals, giving the Mammoths an 8-2 lead by the start of the second quarter. The Mules were able to cut the lead down to 13-11, but Bennett kicked off another series of three unanswered goals and Colby was never seen again. The Mammoths won 16-12, improving their record to 8-2.

Track and Field

At the Amherst Spring Fling, the Amherst College women's track and field team saw junior Mia Bawendi set a new pole vault record and sophomore Eliza Cardwell win two events. The team secured victories in eight events overall. Meanwhile, the men's team broke two Amherst records that had stood for decades, with first-year Charlie Spurrell breaking the hammer record and the 4x100m relay team setting a new school record. The men's team won six events in total. Both teams will compete next weekend at the Silfen Invitational and the Coffey Invitational.