WATERVILLE

The Bowdoin College softball team picked up an 8-0 New England Small College Athletic Conference win over Colby on Friday afternoon.

The game was called after five innings due to the eight-run Mercy Rule.

Caroline Rice put Bowdoin on the board in the bottom of the first, driving in Marisa O’Toole with an RBI single. Ali Miller put the Polar Bears up 3- 0 with a two-run single in the second.

Bowdoin pushed three more runs across the plate during the third inning. Allison Rutz recorded an RBI double and eventually came around to score on sacrifice fly to center by Jordan Gowdy. Samantha Valdivia also drove in a run with a ground ball to second. Rice recorded her second RBI of the day in the fourth as she drove in Emily Griffin with a sacrifice fly.

Lauren O’Shea closed out the game in the bottom of the fifth, driving in Bowdoin’s eighth run with a single that drove in Valdivia.

Rutz pitched five complete innings and allowed just two hits. The first-year recorded a pair of strikeouts and no walks.

On Saturday, the Polar Bears reached the 20-win plateau for the 11th consecutive season following a series sweep of Colby.

Bowdoin (21-6, 5-1 NESCAC) won a tight 2-1 contest in game one and shut out Colby (7-15, 0-6 NESCAC) 3-0 in game two.

The Polar Bears play a doubleheader at Saint Joseph’s on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.

Baseball

Brandon Lopez pitched a complete game to carry Bowdoin to a 3-1 NESCAC win against Trinity on Friday afternoon.

Bowdoin broke through in the bottom of the third. With Ejazz Jiu standing at second, Lopez chopped a single through the right side for a 1-0 lead.

After several quick at-bats from both sides, the Polar Bear offense came alive in the seventh to add to the 1-0 lead. Back-to-back errors by the Bantams put runners on first and second, giving Jiu a chance to drive in Bjorn Hansen from second with an RBI single to left-center field. Lopez immediately followed with a run-producing single.

On Saturday, Bowdoin completed the series sweep. Ben Suski hit a walkoff homerun in the bottom of the twelfth inning to complete the series sweep for Bowdoin against Trinity on Saturday evening.

The Polar Bears (10-12, 3-3 NESCAC) collected their first series sweep of Trinity (12-12, 3-6 NESCAC) since 2011. Bowdoin held on for an 8-4 win to open the day and outlasted the Bantams 11-10 in twelve innings for game two.

Bowdoin remains at home for a 4:15 p.m. Monday matchup against Thomas.

Men’s lacrosse

Harry Stanton scored his fifth goal of the game with 8:16 remaining in the fourth quarter, proving to be the difference in a 10-9 win for the Wesleyan men’s lacrosse team at Bowdoin on Saturday.

The 11th-ranked Cardinals improved to 11-1 (7-1 NESCAC) while the 15th-ranked Polar Bears fall to 7-5 (5-3 NESCAC) with the setback.

Bowdoin took an early two-goal lead thanks to goals from Matthew Crowell and Shawn Daly, but Wesleyan answered with consecutive scores from Harry Stanton and Christian Barker to knot the score less than two minutes later.

Neither team took more than a one-goal lead for the remainder of the contest as the squads traded blows and headed into halftime deadlocked at 4-4.

Wesleyan looked to take a lead heading into the fourth quarter, but Shawn Daly finished a quick feed from Shawn Daly behind the net with just two seconds remaining before the end of the period to send the game into the final frame tied at 8-8.

Bowdoin had several chances to knot the score, but Wesleyan’s defense locked down the Polar Bears, who committed six turnovers in the final quarter.

The Polar Bears will look to bounce back on Wednesday night with a game at Colby at 7:00 p.m.

Women’s lacrosse

The Wesleyan University women’s lacrosse team jumped to an early lead and never looked back in a 14-7 win over Bowdoin on Saturday afternoon. The Cardinals improved to 9-4 (5-3 NESCAC) and defeated Bowdoin (9-4, 5-4) for the first time since 2009.

The Cardinals took a 6-1 lead in the opening half thanks to two goals apiece from Meredith Smith and Rachel Aronow. Bowdoin’s Kate McAloon accounted for the lone Polar Bear goal in the opening period.

Wesleyan pushed the lead to as many as eight goals midway through the second half as Smith scored twice more early in the final period. Bowdoin closed the game on a 3-1 run to close the final gap to 14-7.

The Polar Bears will return to action on Saturday when they celebrate Senior Day against Colorado College at 11:30 on Ryan Field.

Men’s tennis

The Middlebury College men’s tennis team edged Bowdoin, 6-3, in a battle of two of the nation’s top-ranked teams on Saturday afternoon. The top-ranked Panthers moved to 15-1 (5-0 NESCAC) while the fourth-ranked Polar Bears fell to 11-2 (3-1 NESCAC).

Middlebury claimed two of three doubles matches to take an early lead, with Bowdoin’s No. 2 pairing of Kyle Wolfe/Jerry Jiang earning the lone Polar Bear point with a 8-5 win. In singles play, the Polar Bears received wins from Grant Urken (6-4, 6-4) and Gil Roddy (6-4, 6-4).

Middlebury was able to claim the win thanks to a pair of victories in three-setters at No. 1 against Luke Tercek (6-2, 2-6, 6-2) and at No. 6 against Luke Carstens (6-2, 4-6, 6-2).

Bowdoin returns to action on Thursday as they travel to play at Colby at 4:00 p.m.

Women’s tennis

The Polar Bears suffered an 8-1 setback at the hands of Middlebury on Saturday afternoon.

The third-ranked Panthers improved to 8-3 overall while seventh-ranked Bowdoin fell to 10-3 on the season.

Bowdoin found themselves in a 3-0 hole following doubles play with the closest match coming at No. 1, where the team of Joulia Likhanskaia/ Samantha Stalder lost a 9-7 decision. The Polar Bears were only able to win one match in singles play, a three-set victory by Tasha Christ at No. 6, 7-6, 3-6, 10-0.

Bowdoin will return to action next weekend at Tufts for a 3:00 p.m. start.

Track & Field

Bowdoin swept its respective meets at the Bowdoin Invitational II hosted at Magee- Samuelson Track on Saturday afternoon.

The Polar Bear women edged Middlebury and Southern Maine in a hotly-contested meet while the Bowdoin ran away from the field in the men’s meet.

For the second straight week, John Pietro swept the throwing events in the men’s meet, claiming the hat trick with personal bests in the shot put (49 ft, 9 in), the discus (146- 3) and a first place showing in the hammer throw (170). Pamela Zabala won a pair of events, claiming the shot put (38-3) and the discus (126-9) in the women’s meet. Joe Staudt also won two competitions: the 110m hurdles (14.87) and the high jump (6’2) for the Bowdoin men.

The Polar Bears are primed for championship season to begin next weekend as the women host the annual Aloha Relays beginning Friday and continuing Saturday at Magee- Samuelson Track. The men’s team will travel to compete in the Maine State Championship at Bates on Saturday.