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Box Score 2 LEWISTON, Maine - Bowdoin pitchers Oliver Van Zant and Tim Welch dominated Bates on Saturday as the Polar Bear baseball team swept the Bobcats 3-0 and 6-1 on Saturday at Leahey Field.
The road team won all three games of the rivals' series. Bowdoin now stands 13-8 overall and 2-1 in conference play, while Bates drops to 12-10 overall, 1-5 in the NESCAC East.
Oliver Van Zant outdueled Bates' Tom Baroni in Game 1, allowing just four hits and no walks while striking out nine in a complete-game, seven-inning shutout. Bowdoin got ahead in the second inning as Jordan Edgett hit a leadoff double, then scored from second base on a fly ball out, taking advantage of Bates right fielder Nate Pajka's fall after he made the catch. Edgett scored the Polar Bears' second run in the fourth, leading off again with a base hit, moving to second on a hit by Dan Findley and scoring on Luke Regan's sacrifice fly. Bowdoin tacked on a third run in the seventh inning, when Kyle LeBlanc led off with a single, stole both second and third base and scored on Erik Jacbbsen's single.
Bowdoin followed a similar formula in winning game two, riding the pitching of lefthander Tim Welch, who held the Bobcats scoreless until the eighth inning. Welch allowed just one run on four hits and two walks, striking out four to move to 2-0 on the season. Henry Van Zant pitched a scoreless ninth.
Welch got all the run support he needed in the third inning, when Bowdoin plated four runs. Aaron Rosen drew a one-out walk, then reached third base on a single by Tim McGarry and a wild pitch. With McGarry running for second base on ball four to Jacobsen, a momentary lapse of judgment allowed Rosen to steal home in a heads-up play. John Lefeber then clouted a three-run home run over the left-field fence to make it 4-0. Bowdoin added two more runs on four hits in the fifth inning, including a double by Jacobsen and RBI singles by Lefeber and Findley.
Van Zant improved to 3-0 with the game one win and has allowed just three earned runs in five appearances this spring. Saturday, he lowered his season ERA to 0.85. Welch, in three appearances this spring has permitted just one earned runs and holds a microscopic 0.47 ERA.
Bowdoin plays at St. Joseph's on Monday at 4 p.m.
