Continentals edge Mammoths, 4-1

AMHERST, Mass. -- Hamilton College sophomore Mark Kovach threw a complete-game five-hitter Friday, outdueling Mammoths sophomore

Nick Fassert, as the Continentals defeated the Amherst College baseball team 4-1 in front of 157 at Memorial Field.

Amherst fell to 20-10 overall with the loss, and 5-5 in the NESCAC West Division standings. Hamilton improved to 15-14 overall and 6-4 in the West. The two teams meet again Saturday back at Memorial Field for a doubleheader beginning at 12 p.m.

GAME HIGHLIGHTS:

• Hamilton took a 2-0 lead in the first and never looked back as Kovach's scattered five hits over nine innings.

• Amherst answered Hamilton's two-run first with their only run of the game in its half of the inning.

Jackson Boyer hit Kovac's first pitch of the game for a triple into the left-center field gap. He scored on the very next pitch as

Leo Foust line a sacrifice fly to right field.

• Hamilton added to its lead with two runs in the top of the fourth. Kovach kept the Amherst bats quiet, retiring 11 in a row at one point between the third and the bottom of the sixth.

Tyler McCord broke up that string wit a two-out single up the middle in the sixth.

• In the bottom of the eighth, Mammoth sophomore

Matthew Chen led off with a pinch-hit single but Kovac fanned the next three Mammoths on swinging third strikes.

• In the bottom of the ninth, with two outs

Justin Orridge worked a walk of Kovach and

Charlie LaFreniere followed with a pinch-hit single to right-center, but a groundout ended the contest.

BY THE NUMBERS:

• Boyer went 2 for 4 with a run scored for Amherst.

Nick Fassert fell to 3-2 on the season with the loss.

Matt Tabet threw three scoreless innings of relief, allowing two hits while walking no one and striking out two.