Baseball: Bates sweeps Anna Maria

The Bates College baseball team swept a doubleheader against Anna Maria College on Wednesday, winning Game 1 11-6 and taking Game 2 6-1 to rise above the .500 mark at 15-14 this season. The host Amcats dropped to 20-17.

Senior Jake Simon (Waterford, Conn.) hit two of Bates' four home runs on the day, along with the first round-trippers of the season for both junior Mike Ciummei (Acton, Mass.) and senior Chris Burke (Andover, Mass.). Simon, who drove in five runs over the two games, leads the Bobcats with four homers and 23 runs batted in this season.

Senior Noah Lynd (Meriden, N.H.) pitched a seven-inning complete game to win Game 2, allowing just one run on three hits and one walk while striking out four to move to 2-0 on the year.

Chris Burke went 4-for-4 in Game 1, including a two-run home run to center field in the first inning. The Amcats came back to score two runs apiece in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings in support of starter Jim McNamara, who threw six strong innings. But Bates exploded for nine runs on six hits and three Amcat errors in the top of the seventh against three Anna Maria relievers. Ciummei led off the inning with a home run to left, and Simon and sophomore Kevin McGregor (Randolph, N.J.) followed with singles. Sophomore Ryan Sonberg (Windsor, Conn.) doubled home Simon, and Chris Burke followed with a two-run single to score Sonberg and McGregor, tying the game at 6-6. The Bobcats loaded the bases for senior Gordy Webb (Hampden, Maine), who drew an RBI walk, and Ciummei's fly ball to center field scored Burke to make it 8-6. Simon capped Bates' huge inning with a three-run home run to left field to make it 11-6.

Bates sophomore reliever Mike Antonellis (Sudbury, Mass.), who was credited with the win to move to 2-1 on the season, gave way to junior Karl Alexander (Cambridge, Mass.) who mopped up with a shutout seventh inning.

Both teams strung up zeroes on the scoreboard over the first three innings of Game 2, but the Bobcats ended that with two runs in the fourth. Chris Burke led off with an infield single, then stole second base and later came home on a sac fly by McGregor after Webb walked. Webb then scored on a double to left by Ciummei.

The Amcats got their lone run of the game in the bottom of the inning, with a leadoff double by Andy Fallon followed by a single through the left side by Jeff Kodys.

Bates scored two more runs in both the fifth and sixth innings in support of Lynd. Sophomore Jeff Clausen (Southold, N.Y.) led off the fifth with a double and scored on Sonberg's groundout, and senior Pat Murphy singled and scored on first-year Griff Tewksbury's (Concord, N.H.) groundout. In the sixth, McGregor singled and scored on Simon's second homer of the day, a two-run shot to center field.

Bates 11, Anna Maria 6 (04/27/11 at Worcester, Mass.) (Game 1)
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Bates............... 200 000 9 - 11 10 2 (14-14)
Anna Maria.......... 000 222 0 - 6 13 4 (20-16)
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Pitchers: Bates - Michael Spinosa; Mike Antonellis(5); Karl Alexander(7) and . Anna Maria -
McNamara; Tivnan(7); Henderson(7); Dean D.(7) and .
Win-Mike Antonellis(2-1) Loss-Henderson(1-2) T-1:12 A-46
HR BAT - Chris Burke; Mike Ciummei; Jake Simon.
HR AMC - Scafidi; Kodys.
Weather: Cloudy and Cool

Bates 6, Anna Maria 1 (04/27/11 at Worcester, Mass.) (Game 2)
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Bates............... 000 222 0 - 6 7 0 (15-14)
Anna Maria.......... 000 100 0 - 1 3 1 (20-17)
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Pitchers: Bates - Noah Lynd and . Anna Maria - Rafferty; McNeil(5); Curley(6) and .
Win-Noah Lynd(2-0) Loss-Rafferty(3-4) T-1:40 A-35
HR BAT - Jake Simon.