WESTFIELD, Mass. – Sam Palmer (Medfield, Mass.) clubbed his fourth home run of the season, but Westfield State dropped a non-conference game against Amherst College, 10-5, on the road Tuesday afternoon.
The Owls own a 14-5 record after the loss while the Mammoths improve to 10-4 on the year.
Westfield got in the scoring column in the opening inning with Nolan Florence (Chicopee, Mass.) driving home Palmer with an RBI single through the left side of the infield to lead 1-0.
The Mammoths would limit the damage to just one run in the frame as Westfield tallied three hits and reached twice via error, leaving the bases loaded to end the top half.
A sacrifice fly from Luke Padian (Katonah, N.Y.) scored the Mammoths first run in the bottom of the first, and another run came in to score off an Owls error. Then in the second inning, Amherst pushed the lead up to four runs capped by a run-scoring single from Christian Fagnant (East Granby, Conn.) who pushed the lead up to 5-1.
Westfield would battle back to tally two runs in the third, getting RBIs from Sean Clark (Dudley, Mass.) and Trey Faulkner (Springfield, Mass.) before Amherst would respond with a run in the bottom of the frame, then two additional runs in the fifth to open an 8-3 advantage.
Palmer shaved the deficit in the sixth frame, delivering a two-out blast to left field to plate John Bessette (Andover, Mass.), making it an 8-5 Mammoths lead. However, Amherst once again had an answer in the bottom of the inning, knocking home the final two runs of the game for either side to put the game away.
The Owls threw five different arms over the course of the game with Michael Hall (Westfield, Mass.) getting the starting nod, pitching two innings, allowing five runs (three earned) on four hits and four walks with one strikeout.
Matt Tabet (Wilton, Conn.) picked up his second win of the season for Amherst, tossing six innings, giving up five runs (four earned) on nine hits with one walk and four strikeouts.
Westfield State will resume conference play this Friday as the Owls host Worcester State for the first of a three-game set with first pitch at 3:30 P.M.