WATERVILLE, Maine – The Bowdoin baseball team opened NESCAC play with a 3-1 victory over Bates on Friday afternoon.

The Polar Bears (7-6, 1-0 NESCAC) rode three strong performances on the mound and timely hitting to collected their first conference win of the year. The Bobcats (3-7, 0-1 NESCAC) swept Bowdoin in the 2017 series.

Game Highlights

• Max Vogel-Freedman escaped an early bases loaded jam in the first inning, following up with four innings without allowing a Bates runner past second.
• Bowdoin got on the board in the bottom of the second. Jack Wilhoite tagged a leadoff single to left and advanced into scoring position on a groundout from Nick Sadler. Colby Joncas drove in the run, singling to left.
• The Bobcats denied any more Polar Bear runs in the fourth, as Connor Russell found the final out of the inning with runners on second and third.
• Pat Beaton led off the sixth with a single to center and came around to tie the game on Jack Arend's double to center.
• Bowdoin responded in the bottom half of the inning as Connor Lee connected with a bases loaded fielder's choice that plated Austin Zakow.
• In the seventh, with Ben Suski waiting at second, Joe Gentile bagged a ground-rule double over the fence in right center for the 3-1 lead.
• Jack Wilhoite came in to pitch the final two innings for Bowdoin, retiring the side in the eighth.
• Bates threatened in the final inning with runners on the corners. Wilhoite escaped without allowing a run, striking out his third batter of the frame.

By the Numbers

• Vogel-Freedman pitched six innings, allowing six hits and one run with five strikeouts. Colby Lewis pitched a complete seventh for the Polar Bears (one strikeout, one walk, no hits), before Wilhoite closed out with five K's and one hit allowed.
• Russell surrendered six hits in as many innings, with three strikeouts and a pair of walks.
• Connor DiVincenzo went 2-for-4 at the plate. Jack Arend reached first in all three of his at-bats.
• Wilhoite and Brandon Lopez both went 2-for-4 at the plate.

Up Next

• The two teams return to Colby's campus for a doubleheader tomorrow afternoon, beginning at 12:00 p.m.