MIDDLEBURY, Vt. — The Trinity College baseball team fell 14-7 in game one of the New England Small College Conference Quarterfinal Series at Middlebury College, despite a ninth-inning rally and lost a close 13-12 game two to round out their season on Saturday. The Bantams finished the season at 21-14 overall and 6-6 in the league, while the Panthets continued with a record of 25-9 and 7-5.

The Panthers struck first in the opening frame as Middlebury ripped a single up the middle to drive a pair in and give Middlebury a 2-0 lead. Trinity got on the board in the top of the sixth. With the bases loaded, Jack Mathews (Westport, Conn.) roped a ground ball to first. Beau Root made the diving stop to get the out at first, but Tyler Bernstein (Ponte Vedra, Fla.) was able to cross home plate to make it 2-1. The Panthers responded with four runs in the bottom half of the inning. With runners on second and third, an infield hit from Sammy Smith plated Mitchell Schroeder before Nathan Samii flipped a base hit into right center to bring in Andrew Gough and make it 4-1. In the seventh, the Panthers took a seven-run lead, 8-1, on a home run to deep center field by Sammy Smith. Middlebury made it 14-1 in the eighth. The Bantams tacked on six runs in the final inning, but could not overcome the deficit as Middlebury hung on for the 14-7 win.

Trinity jumped out to a 1-0 edge in the top of the first when Bernstein hit an infield dribbler that allowed Brandon Chow (Greenwich,Conn.) to scamper home. Middlebury answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame. The hosts loaded the bases and Schroeder plopped a single into right field to level the score, before Gough and Jack Stolper each followed by drawing walks to bring the score to 3-1. The Bantams regained the lead in the fifth when Mathews singled through the left side to plate a run before Patrick Dillon (Bronx, N.Y.) drove a three-run homer that tucked just inside the left field foul pole for a 5-3 lead.

In the bottom half, the Panthers restored their lead. With two aboard, Kyle McCausland crushed a three run round-tripper over the flagpole in center field to make it 6-5. Middlebury would add one more run on an RBI groundout from Stolper to take a 7-5 edge. Trinity responded with four runs in the sixth capped by a single from Colin Mann (Dedham, Mass.) that drove in Mathews and gave the Bantams a 9-7 advantage. Just as they did in the fifth, the Panthers stormed back into the lead with a three run homer, this time by John Collins to give Middlebury a 10-9 advantage. Trinity regained the lead in the seventh with two runs to make it 11-10. The Bantams' lead was short-lived, as Gough led off the bottom of the seventh inning with a solo homer to level the score, and Stolper crossed home on a wild pitch to take a 12-11 lead.

Trinity would not go away as Andrew Thomas Park (Flushing, N.Y.) led off the eighth with a blast over the right field fence that tied the contest once again (12-12). In the bottom half of the inning, McCausland came up clutch, belting his second home run of the game to deep left field to give Middlebury a 13-12 advantage that they would see out for the series victory.