The Colby Echo

Issue date: 5/4/07 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Rob Kievit

Coming off a strong weekend against Bates College where the Mules' offense exploded for 31 runs in two games, the Mules was hoping their bats would remain hot for last week's games against local competition and Tufts University. The Mules got their wish on Thursday, April 26, piling up runs in a 21-6 win over the University of Maine at Farmington, but their bats fell silent as Tufts University held Colby to four runs in three games, handing the Mules three straight losses this past weekend.

"It was a tough three game series," Kenneth Kaufman `10 said. "We went into the weekend feeling good about our chances but didn't get the timely hitting needed to produce runs."

In Sunday's 10-1 loss to the Jumbos in the rain, the Mules matched Tufts 'hit total of 10 but couldn't string enough hits together to bring runners across the plate and gave Tufts (22-8) too many scoring opportunities from walks and errors.

Craig Cooper `09, Ryan Conlon `10 and Brian Liberty `07 all had multi-hit games for the Mules, but their success at the plate was not enough as Colby fell to 7-19 and 2-9 in the New England Small College Athletic Conference.

In Saturday's double-header, the Mules lost 5-1 in the first game and 9-2 in the second. Tom Salemy '07, however, did continue his success at the plate that earned him NESCAC Player of the Week honors the week before with a two-run homer in the late game to make the score 7-2 in the third.

In Thursday's dominant victory over the University of Maine at Farmington, all nine Colby starters had multi-hit games including Liberty and Corey Martin `10, who had four hits a piece.

As the season winds down and the team begins to look ahead to next year, Colby will be without a core group of seniors that have led the team at the plate and on the mound for much of this season and the past four years.

To go along with Liberty's success this past weekend, the outfielder started twenty-three games for the Mules this season and posts a .294 batting average. He is also third in the team in runs scored.

Robert Rosenbaum '07, who earned the win against UMF, posts the third lowest ERA for the Mules this season at 4.75 and is in a three-way tie for the lead in wins this season. Also on the mound, Bob Brady '07, a junk-ball pitcher, leads the team in ERA with an impressive 2.31 mark and has 12 strikeouts in 11 innings pitched.

The Mules have three senior batters over the .300 mark this season, Salemy, catcher Steve Sandak '07 and Captain Andy Carr '07. Salemy posted a team-leading .441 batting average with 24 RBI, Sandak a .333 average with a .524 slugging percentage, and Carr .355 average with 11 RBI. Pitcher Jordan Henry '07, who was injured this season, will also graduate this spring.

"Salemy and Carr are going to be tough hitters to replace in the heart of our lineup," Kaufman said, "they've been responsible for a lot of our runs not just this year but in the past couple years, and it's going to take some big bats to fill their void."

Page 1 of 1

Article Tools