Box Score 
MIDDLEBURY, Vt. – Middlebury College outscored the Tufts University baseball team 13-1 in game three of the best-of-three NESCAC Quarterfinals series, advancing to Championship Weekend hosted by Trinity College next weekend, May 13-15.
Middlebury (26-11, 10-2 NESCAC West) starting pitcher Alec Ritch got the win for the Panthers, throwing 6.0 innings with just one earned run on six hits and five strikeouts. Tufts starter Brendan McFall was credited with the loss, throwing 3.2 innings and allowing five earned runs on six hits with five striekouts. Miles Reid and Ben Leonard found success at the plate for the Jumbos (24-12, 6-6 NESCAC East), combining for five of Tufts' six hits. Reid finished 3 for 3 with a double while Leonard had two hits in three at-bats with a double.
Starting in the second inning, Middlebury scored in three consecutive innings. Chris Borter hit an rbi double, scoring Nathan Samii, who singled through the right side of the infield to start the Panther's rally earlier in the inning. Andrew Ashley singled to shortstop and scored on a ground out for the second Middlebury run.
The Lone run for the Jumbos came in the third inning when Patrick Solomon scored on a ground ball after leading off the inning with a walk and advancing to third on an Ozzie Fleischer single. Middlebury answered with one run in the third inning on a Jack Stolper sacrifice fly before tallying three more in the fourth. Borter, Zip Malley and John Collins all had hits for the Panthers in the fourth inning, with Collins driving in a run on a single.
Middlebury ended the game on another three-inning scoring streak, scoring one run in the sixth on a Borter rbi single and three runs in both the seventh and eighth innings. Stolper led off the seventh with a solo home run to center, his third of the series and Malley had a two-run double to the left center gap in the eighth for Middlebury. Pitchers Cole Crider and George Goldstein combined to allow no Tufts hits in the final three innings, as Crider pitched two innings with a strikeout and Goldstein took the mound in the ninth, retiring three consecutive Jumbos to clinch the 13-1 victory and send Middlebury to Championship Weekend.
Written by Tim O'Brien, Athletic Communications Intern
