Around the Herd: May 1 to May 7 in Athletics

Baseball

The baseball team faced Bowdoin College in a best-of-three series last weekend for the NESCAC tournament’s quarterfinal.

The intense series began on Friday at Memorial Field. Outfielder Jack Dove ’24 scored an RBI-single to take an early 1-0 in the first inning, only for the Polar Bears to respond with a run of their own in the following frame. With two runners on first and third, the Mammoths tried to steal both second and then home. Jack Boyle ’25 was barely able to secure second base, but the shortstop found the catcher to take out Tyler McCord ’26 and end the second inning. From then, the Mammoths’ offense stagnated, and Bowdoin slowly built a 4-1 lead by the seventh. Amherst didn’t let up, scoring a run in the ninth, but the comeback ended there.

Losing the first game 4-2, the Mammoths had to win both games on Saturday in order to move on to the semifinals of the tournament. The first game was mostly uneventful with both teams combining for a mere eight hits throughout the match. Jack Sampedro ’25 secured an early 1-0 lead with a single up the middle to bring Jack McDermott ’25 home. After Bowdoin tied the game in the fifth inning, Nicholas Giatanno ’24 went on a tear, retiring fourteen out of the sixteen batters he faced. As such, by the ninth inning, the game was still tied, with Sampedro on second base. Charlie LaFraniere ’27 stepped up to the plate and immediately sent the ball flying towards right center field to bring Sampedro home for the walk-off RBI, securing the 2-1 victory.

After a couple low-scoring games, the third game was the complete opposite. Still, by the top of the sixth inning, the two teams had only traded two runs each. Then, Ben Smith ’26 recorded an rbi-single, allowing LaFraniere to score, only for the Polar Bears to retrieve the lead, scoring two runs in seventh’s first frame. But, these were the last runs Bowdoin would score. The Mammoths went on to score nine runs in two innings triggering the mercy rule before even the teams could play the ninth inning. Smith had five RBIs in the game.

The team will move on to the semifinal, and will be facing Colby on Friday.

Softball

Amherst’s softball team played against Colby College in a doubleheader on Saturday.

The Mammoths held a 1-0 lead for five innings in the first match, after Annalise Knop ’27 scored because of an error. When the Mules evened the tally at the top of the sixth, Sadie Pool ’24 responded with a RBI-single in the following frame. The renewed lead was short lived, however, as Amherst’s defensive woes continued, allowing their opponents to explode for an eight run inning. They lost 9-2.

The Mules held the lead for the entirety of the second match. Before Amherst scored a single run, Colby had already built a 8-0 lead. Nevertheless, the team showed some heart, scoring five runs in the final frame of the season, including a beautiful RBI-double by Randi Finklestein ’24. The score ended at 8-5.  

As these were the last two games of the season, the team will exit the season with a record of 7-28 with much to work on before next year.

Men’s Track and Field

Last weekend, the men’s track and field team competed in the New England Division III Championships at Mount Holyoke College.

Ian Dopp ’24 ran a 9:20.09 in the 3000m steeplechase, finishing in second place. Cody Pierce ’26 earned fourth place in the 200m with a time of 21.97 seconds. Gabe Dos Santos ’24 won his fourth All-New England honors in a row, recording a mark of 1.94m in the high jump. Stan Craig ’27 finished in a season-best 3:55.95 in the 1500m, finishing in fifth.

The team recorded a total of 11 All New England honors — awarded to the top eight finishers — across both days to finish in fourth place at the meet.  

Women’s Track and Field

The women’s track and field team went to Mount Holyoke College for the New England Division III Championships.

Emma Ramsingh ’27 broke the school’s discus record for the fifth time this season, posting a mark of 47.08m to finish third in the event. Myeh Medina ’26 finished in second in the 400m hurdles, running the event in 1:02.87 — a personal best. Eliza Cardwell ’25 ran the 100m hurdles in 14.43 seconds, earning second place for the thirteenth All New England honor of her career. Zoe Marcus ’27 recorded a personal record in the 800m to finish in third place. She ran a time of 2:10.45.

Men’s Tennis

Bowdoin College defeated the Amherst men’s tennis team in the NESCAC tournament quarterfinal this past weekend.

Only the doubles team composed of Sujit Chepuri ’25 and Spencer Leung ’27 won their matchup. After all of the ladder’s bottom three matchups fell to their Bowdoin opponents, the Mammoths had no way to win the match; the officials interrupted the three remaining matches and they remained unfinished. The score was 5-1.

As the last game of their season, the tennis team’s record finishes at an impressive 12-6.

Women’s Tennis

The women’s tennis team went on a stellar run in the NESCAC tournament over the weekend, losing to Wesleyan in the championship final.

The team began their run with a dominating victory over Bowdoin. After the team took a 2-1 lead in the doubles matchups, they calmly found three more wins in the singles ladder, clinching the victory, and abruptly ending three matches that remained unfinished. They won with a score of 5-1.

Against Middlebury, the team followed the same formula, earning a 2-1 lead in the doubles matches, and finding three wins in the singles ladder. This time, however, all the games went down to the wire, with Karolina Dobiecka ’26 competing in the decisive game. Even though she fell 7-5 in the first, she fought back, dominating in the following two sets, 6-2, 6-3, to advance Amherst to the finals.

Unfortunately, Wesleyan simply outmatched the Mammoths. Although Amy Cui ’25 and Katie Hart ’25 won their doubles matchups, the Cardinals rampaged the singles matches, allowing each game to go to no more than two sets and with none of the sets reaching more than 10 games. Two games were unfinished and one did not even begin. Wesleyan won the championship 5-1.

The Mammoths will compete in the NCAA DIII tournament this weekend.