Colby’s Jack Bohrer smiles with a teammate in the dugout during a May 1 game against Plymouth State in Waterville. Anna Chadwick/Morning Sentinel
The Colby College baseball team will try to add a conference championship to its historic season this weekend.
The Mules (28-8) will head to Medford, Massachusetts on Friday to play Amherst College (25-9) in the first part of a double-elimination tournament for the New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) title.
The winner of the Colby-Amherst game will face either Tufts (22-14) or Middlebury (27-10) on Saturday. Colby has never won a NESCAC baseball title.
“There’s four well-balanced teams left in this tournament,” said Colby head coach Jesse Woods. “Amherst, Middlebury and Tufts combined, they all have an offense that can hurt you, and pitching and defense that’s tough to beat. We’ll have our hands full. At this point, when you combine good teams with a strong will to win the championship, that makes for a dangerous opponent.”
The Mules, winners of five straight, are having their best season in program history. Colby swept Wesleyan in the NESCAC quarterfinals last weekend.
“Something that we’ve talked about as a group is (the fact) that good teams can win in so many different ways,” said Woods, who picked up his 100th career win at Colby last weekend. “Whether it’s a high-scoring game and we have to keep swinging the bats, or it’s a close game where a walk, or a defensive play, or making a big pitch (that’s the difference). These guys are aware that not every baseball game is going to look the same. You know you’re going to be called upon to do different things in different scenarios in different games, and these guys have come through.”
Colby, with a .334 team batting average and a .429 on-base percentage, continues to pound the ball.
The Mules have continued to find success at the plate despite the loss of senior catcher Cole Palmeri (.416 batting average, 11 home runs, 38 RBIs), who is out with a wrist injury. Freshman infielder Patrick Shrake (.385 batting average), senior infielder Noah Reichman (.375, 6 HRs, 34 RBIs), senior outfielder Marcus Forrester (.366, 26 RBIs, 16 stolen bases) and senior infielder Brady O’Brien (.348, 2 HRs, 30 RBIs) have been among the team’s leading hitters.
“(The team) has been hyper-focused on what makes them successful individually, and consequently, as a team as well, and they’ve been consistent week to week,” Woods said. “It’s been a really fun ride.”
The Mules, ranked 25th in the D3Baseball.com/NCBWA Top 25 poll, have a good chance to reach the NCAA Division III tournament, regardless of how they fare this weekend.
“It’s the best feeling you can have as a coach,” Woods said. “I’m sure there’s a lot of people who never thought Colby would crack the Top 25, and we (have). But I think the guys in the room and players that have come before them, I think everyone knew this is something that we could achieve if we played to who we are.”
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