Bowdoin beats Bates

Bowdoin received a strong pitching performance from Christian Martin and a pair of key two-out, two-RBI hits in defeating the Bates baseball team 8-3 on Friday at Leahey Field. Bates drops to 6-11 overall and 0-4 in the NESCAC East Division, while Bowdoin rises to 10-5 overall and 1-0 in division play.

The teams will meet for a doubleheader tomorrow at Leahey Field at 12 p.m.; the games were originally scheduled to be played at Bowdoin.

Martin (3-1) went eight innings and allowed three runs (two earned) on six hits and three walks while striking out six. Drew Lorusso pitched a shutout ninth inning to preserve the win.

Bates starter Karl Alexander cruised through the first three innings but ran into trouble in the fourth, loading the bases after two outs were recorded with a hit batsmen and a walk. Joe Comizio singled through the left side to score Brendan Garner and Brett Gorman for the game's first two runs.

The Polar Bears made it 6-0 with four runs in the top of the fifth. Kyle LeBlanc hit a one-out double and scored on a single by Jordan Edgett, and Garner singled home Matt Ruane, who had reached on an error. Bowdoin added two more runs on Gorman's sac fly and on a second Bates error.

The Bobcats got on the board in the bottom of the inning. Gordy Webb and Mike Ciummei both singled, and scored on Ryan Sonberg's two-out single to close the deficit to 6-2.

Bates inched closer with another run in the sixth thanks to senior Noah Lynd's solo home run, his second of the season and the 19th of his career, which moved him into a three-way tie for second place on Bates' all-time homers list with Chris Hickey '87 and Rob Maguire '04.

Bowdoin pulled away with two more runs in the seventh, when Dan Findley delivered a two-out double to score Edgett and Garner.

Alexander lasted 4.2 innings and allowed six runs, three earned, while striking out four. Four Bates relievers saw action, capped by sophomore Pat Siebenlist, who pitched a shutout eighth and ninth inning, allowing just one hit.

Garner led Bowdoin's nine-hit attack by going 3-for-5 and scoring three runs and driving in another. Sonberg and Ciummei both went 2-for-4, combining for two-thirds of Bates' six hits on the day.

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