NESCAC Weekly Release #32 (May 2)
Baseball Player of the Week
Alec Ritch, Middlebury
Ritch helped lead Middlebury to a 5-1 week. He propelled the Panthers to four key NESCAC wins, batting .500 with eight runs on seven hits. Ritch had three doubles and a home run to go along with seven RBI during the four conference victories. He was also 7-for-7 in stolen bases, becoming the program leader for single-season stolen bases (33) and is the second Panther with 51 in a career. Ritch also extended his streak of reaching base safely to 28 games.
Baseball Pitcher of the Week
Jason Bogdanos, Bowdoin
Bogdanos tossed a nine-inning complete game, allowing no earned runs, scattering four hits, and striking out five batters to lead Bowdoin to a win over Bates on Friday. Bogdanos improved to 5-2 on the season with the win, as the Polar Bears clinched a home postseason game for the first time since 2006 by finishing first in the NESCAC East Division.
Softball Player of the Week
Randi Finkelstein, Amherst
Finkelstein played a key role in the Mammoths’ 3-0 sweep of NESCAC West rival Wesleyan last week, batting .625 (5-for-8) with six RBI and four runs scored. She had two doubles, a triple, and a home run. In the first game of the series, she hit a one-out, bottom of the seventh three-run walk-off home run to give Amherst a 3-2 win. In game two, she had an RBI-single in the second inning for a 1-0 lead and a two-run double in the sixth to turn a 6-4 lead into an 8-4 advantage in an eventual 10-4 win. In game three, she scored both Mammoth runs and had a triple in a 2-0 victory that allowed the Mammoths to win the Little 3 Championship and finish first in the NESCAC West Division. She also fielded nine chances with seven putouts and two assists without committing an error at second base
Softball Pitcher of the Week
Sophia DiCocco, Tufts
DiCocco won all three of her starts last week, pitching complete games in each. She had a 1.17 ERA and 14 strikeouts with two walks in the 18 innings overall. During the three-game series at Bates during which Tufts clinched the #1 seed in the East, she was 2-0 with an 0.64 ERA including a six-inning, five-hit shutout in game two on Saturday.
Men's Lacrosse Co-Players of the Week
Mitch Likins, Amherst
Likins made 40 saves in 104 minutes in goal for the Mammoths and allowing only 12 goals and posting a .769 save percentage. In a quarterfinal win over Williams, he had six saves on seven shots in the second quarter as Amherst pulled away for a 7-4 lead, and made six more stops in the fourth quarter to snuff out a Williams comeback attempt. In a 16-10 win over Trinity, he had stopped 11 of 13 shots he faced in the first half as Amherst built a 7-2 halftime lead. He also had three ground balls on the week.
Mac Bredahl, Tufts
In a showdown for the top seed in the conference against previously undefeated Bowdoin, Bredahl scored 12 points with four goals and eight assists in 23-15 Tufts victory. The eight assists and 12 points were both the second-most in a game in Tufts history. After Bowdoin closed to within 16-12 entering the fourth quarter, he set up four goals in the fourth as Tufts pulled away. Bredahl finished the week with five goals and 12 assists for 17 points, including a goal with four assists in the quarterfinal versus Connecticut College.
Women's Lacrosse Player of the Week
Margie Carden, Tufts
Carden had eight goals and two assists in a 2-0 week for Tufts. She had four goals in Tufts’ 11-10 win at Bowdoin on Wednesday which earned the No. 3 seed in NESCAC for the Jumbos. She also led Tufts with four goals and two assists against Trinity in the NESCAC Quarterfinals on Saturday.
