The Hamilton College Continentals scored 26 runs and avoided elimination twice on Saturday in the 2022 NESCAC Baseball Championship at Trinity College's DiBenedetto Stadium.
 
Hamilton (20-16 overall) defeated Amherst College 15-8 in the early game and pulled away from Colby College for an 11-3 victory in the evening. The Continentals lost 6-4 against Colby on Friday afternoon and made Saturday's games a must-win in this four-team, double-elimination tournament.
 
Hamilton, which is the No. 2 seed from the NESCAC West Division, will take on West Division top seed Middlebury College in the finals at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 15. Middlebury needs to win just one game to take the title. If the Continentals win, it will force a winner-take-all contest that will start 30 minutes after the completion of the first game. Hamilton won one out of three games against the Panthers this season. The Continentals have won 20 games for the first time in a season.
 
Amherst
 
Hamilton scored five runs in the top of the first inning, led 12-1 in the fourth and coasted the rest of the way against the Mammoths. The Continentals outscored Amherst 51-23 in four wins this spring. Hamilton racked up 17 hits as every starter collected at least one.
 
The Mammoths (15-18-1) scored a run in the third inning, three in the fourth, one in the seventh and three more in the ninth. Amherst was the fourth seed from the West Division.
 
Phil Bernstein '23 went 3-for-4 with two walks and Jack Herlihy '22 doubled twice, singled, walked and scored three times for the Continentals. Gavin Schaefer-Hood '22 went 2-for-2, was hit by a pitch twice and scored three runs. Ethan Harrast '23, Adam Wijaya '22 and Jay Schlaefer '23 added two hits apiece. Schlaefer smacked his second career triple and Wijaya hammered his second home run at Hamilton. The Continentals stole five bases.
 
Jackson Sattinger '24 (3-2) scattered eight hits and allowed one earned run in six innings of work. Sattinger fanned four and walked none as he lowered his season earned run average to 3.26. Carl Maxwell '22 tossed a scoreless inning of relief.
 
Hamilton jumped on the Mammoths right away with a rally that started when there were already two outs. Brady Slinger '22 walked and stole second and scored on a double to right field by Herlihy. Shane Dux '24 drove in Herlihy with a flare into short right-center that fell for a single. Schaefer-Hood singled to center field and Wijaya loaded the bases on an infield single. That brought up Jack Griffin '24, who roped a pitch to left-center that rolled to the wall for a bases-clearing double.
 
The Continentals made it 9-0 with four more runs in the third inning. Herlihy led off with a double to center field and eventually scored on Schaefer-Hood's single to right. After Schaefer-Hood stole second base, Wijaya hit one high up into the breeze blowing towards left field and the ball cleared the wall near the scoreboard in left-center. Schlaefer followed with a two-out single to center, stole second and took third base on an errant throw by the catcher. Bernstein drove him in on a base hit in the hole past the diving first baseman.
 
Hamilton took a commanding 12-1 advantage in the fourth when Schlaefer cleared the bases with a two-out triple to right-center. The Continentals scored their last three runs in the seventh for a 15-4 cushion. Slinger plated the first run with a single, an infield error was responsible for the second run, and the last run came in while Amherst turned a double play.
 
Colby
 
Hamilton pounded out 18 hits as the Continentals avenged Friday's loss to the Mules. The top three batters in Hamilton's lineup went 8-for-15 and scored seven runs. Four pitchers combined to strike out a dozen Colby hitters.
 
The Mules (24-13) scored single runs in the fourth, sixth and seventh innings. Colby committed five errors that led to six unearned runs. The Mules were the No. 2 seed from the NESCAC East Division.
 
Dux went 4-for-5 and drove in two runs. He is hitting .520 (13-for-25) in six NESCAC championship games. Bernstein had three hits, including his 50^th this season, and scored three times. Slinger registered three hits, including a triple, and plated three runs. Harrast and Schaefer-Hood contributed two hits apiece and Schaefer-Hood added his fourth double.
 
Jack Eshleman '25 started on the mound and pitched two scoreless innings. Jack Clougherty '23 relieved Eshleman and gave up two runs in four innings as he struck out four and walked none. Preston Perez '22 struck out the side in the eighth and ninth innings and allowed one base runner. Perez has 56 strikeouts in 35.2 innings and is third in the conference in strikeouts.
 
The Continentals took command with four runs scored with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning after Colby had pulled within two runs at 5-3 in the top half of the seventh. Bernstein led off with a double when the left fielder lost the ball in the stadium's lights, and later moved to third on a failed pickoff attempt as the pitcher threw the ball into center field. Herlihy hit a slow ground ball to the third baseman and his high throw pulled the first baseman off the bag. Herlihy touched first base before the tag was applied and Bernstein scored in the process.
 
Dux lined a single to right-center and pinch runner Charlie O'Brien '24 came all the way around to score from first after the relay throw was dropped. Dux went to second on a single by Schaefer-Hood and scored on a single by Sattinger as he lofted a fly ball down the line that landed fair by inches. Schaefer-Hood also came around to make it 9-3 when the right fielder misplayed Sattinger's hit. Hamilton added two runs in the eighth on an RBI triple by Slinger, who later scored on a pinch-hit single by Greg Kopp '25.
 
The Continentals grabbed an early 2-0 lead on run-scoring singles by Slinger and Dux in the first inning. Wijaya made it a three-run lead on his second homer of the day with one out in the second.
 
Hamilton moved out to a 5-1 advantage in the fifth inning with two runs on three singles and an error. With runners on first and second, the Continentals pulled off a double steal and Bernstein scored when the catcher threw the ball into left field. Hamilton finished the game with four stolen bases. Harrast trotted home from third on a single by Slinger.