This past Thursday, April 14 the Colby College Mules traveled to Gorham, Maine to take on the University of Southern Maine (USM). Despite big performances from Richard Newton ’11 and Nikolas Atsalis ’12, the Mules fell short in an 11-10 loss at USM. Newton, a captain for the Mules this season, had a big day, recording the 100th hit of his career. He had one hit and scored twice, while Atsalis also had a big day with two hits and two RBIs, scoring three times. Atsalis led the scoring for the Mules on the day.

The Mules were trailing 11-4 after six innings but turned the game around, managing to score four runs in the top of the seventh. Colby showed its depth as John Lerner ’11 added a pair of runs and had an RBI single in the seventh inning, and Rob Arndt ’12 added one hit, one run and one RBI.  Mike Mastrocola ’12, Taro Gold ’12 and Arndt all had doubles for the Mules.

Colby didn’t let up, scoring two runs in the ninth with two men on base as the game came to a close. First year Dakota Rabbitt pitched 2.1 innings, allowing no runs, keeping his team in the game in the late innings. Rabbitt earned his fifth appearance of the season and kept his scoreless streak alive as he closed the game for the Mules.

USM had a 15-7 hitting advantage in the game, but hurt their own cause with six errors on the day.

Colby hosted 25th-ranked Tufts University this past weekend, with Tufts coming away with three victories on Saturday, April 16 after winning a game that was postponed because of darkness on Friday and then sweeping the regularly-scheduled doubleheader at Coombs Field.

The Jumbos earned the first win 11-9, scoring two runs on Saturday in the 10th inning, finishing Friday’s postponed game. Chase Rose was hit by a pitch to start the inning and was then sacrificed to second by Matt Collins. A fly out put Colby an out away from ending the inning, but Tufts received a key RBI double from Ian Goldberg followed by an RBI single by Tom Howard. Colby was only able to get one runner on base in the bottom of the 10th.

The Jumbos won 4-3 and 10-4 in the other contests of the day, pulling ahead 3-0 after a three-run third inning in the first game of the doubleheader. The Mules produced two solid runs in the fifth inning to cut the margin to one run. Atsalis, on base from a walk, scored from third on a wild pitch, while Newton came across on an RBI double by Mastrocola. Tufts answered back in the sixth, scoring its fourth run on an RBI single by David LeResche. Nate Ellis ’14 had an RBI single to bring in Gold in the bottom of the sixth, the last run of the game for the Mules.

Shortly after, Colby came back swinging and took a 1-0 lead in the first inning of the second game when junior Brendan Gallagher hit a sacrifice fly to bring in Newton. Despite Colby’s fresh start, the Jumbos took the lead for good with three runs in the second inning. The Mules fought until the end and scored three more runs. Sophomore John Schroeder had a sacrifice fly to bring Arndt home in the second, and the Mules followed up with two more runs in the seventh. The score ended 10-4, and the Jumbos returned home with three wins for the series.

The Mules played at the University of Maine on April 19, falling 4-2. Colby will start a series at Bowdoin on April 22 before hosting a double-header against Bowdoin the following day.