The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ baseball team put together its best NESCAC East season in program history this year, finishing with a record of 9-3.

Last Saturday, we traveled to Brunswick to cover the Bobcats’ twin bill vs. Bowdoin. Needing one win to clinch a spot in the , ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ won both.

“You know everybody was locked in from the moment we woke up,” said sophomore Christian Beal of Flossmoor, Ill. “When this team needs a win, we find a way to win, and that’s special.”

Needing one win vs. Bowdoin last weekend to clinch a spot in the NESCAC tourney, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ got two, and had some fun along the way:

Justin White ’19 of Whitesboro, N.Y., is a special story in his own right. When White was a first-year, he got cut from the team. He made the squad as a sophomore but didn’t record his first collegiate hit until mid-April last season.

Now, he’s one of the key reasons ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½’ offense is much-improved this season, ranking eighth in the NESCAC with a .536 slugging percentage in conference games.

“He’s an example for guys, anybody out there that’s really struggling with playing time and not getting in and not getting the results that you want, to stick with it and push through and work hard and it will eventually pan out,” said head coach Jon Martin.

White’s “crazy journey” to the starting lineup is just one of many story lines to watch this weekend at the NESCAC tournament in Waterville, Maine.

Cut from the team as a first-year, Justin White ’19 has come on strong:

For the fourth time ever and the first time since 2008, the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ cross country programs get to host the NESCAC Championships this Saturday at Pineland Farms. The men race at noon and the women race at 1:00 p.m.

Both the men and the women won the Maine State Championship this year, and both squads show up in the national rankings, with the men ranked 28th and the women ranked 14th in all of Division III.

“We’re super excited,” women’s captain Callie Reynolds ’18 of West Hartford, Conn. said. “We found out last fall and at first it was exciting and then it was scary because it’s a 6K at Pineland which is a lot considering how intense the hills are there. But now it’s back to exciting again!”

Pineland Farms gives the Bobcats a great home course advantage.

“At Pineland, it’s super windy (as in curvy) and confusing and it took me and I’m sure a lot of people almost a year to figure it out,” says men’s captain Zach Magin ’18 of West Hartford, Conn.

Reynolds points out that the Bobcats’ knowledge of the course means they are able to pace themselves properly.

“Hopefully at the end of the race when everyone else is dying we’ll be able to be like ‘I know this hill and I can finish strong!'”, says Reynolds.

Here’s an infographic look at what ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ did to advance to the NESCAC Championship tournament for the first time since the tournament began in 2001.

What’s it take to make it to a NESCAC Championship tournament?

For ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ baseball, the tale of the team’s first-ever appearance in the NESCAC tournament is told in this infographic.

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ (19–19 overall, 7–5 in the conference) plays its first-round game today at 3 p.m. vs. Wesleyan University on the campus of Babson College in Babson Park, Mass.

The Bobcats play their second game in the Saturday at 10:30 a.m.

If ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ wins today, the Bobcats play the winner of Tufts–Amherst at Tufts’ Huskins Field.

If the Bobcats fall, they play the loser of Tufts–Amherst at Bentley University’s DeFelice Field.

NESCAC will provide for all games. Games played at Tufts’ Huskins Field will be livestreamed at .

And, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Sports Information will offer updates during today’s game:

The Bobcats return to tournament play this year under head coach Mike Leonard, whose teams have posted winning records in each of his four seasons.

A power in the old ECAC in the 1970s and 1980s under Chick Leahey ’52, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ won the ECAC East title in 1976 and advanced to the tournament three other times.

In 1962, ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ qualified for the NCAA College Division tournament, advancing to the East Regional.

The NESCAC tournament, hosted by Tufts University as the top seed from the NESCAC East Division, runs through Sunday.

The 2014 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ baseball team. (Sarah Crosby/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College men’s basketball team fell to one No. 1 team on Saturday, and the women suffered the same fate on Sunday as both teams were eliminated from the New England Small College Athletic Conference Championships over the weekend.

The women advanced to the championship game with a 60-51 win over Wesleyan on Saturday. On Sunday, the team rallied from a 30-11 halftime deficit to force overtime with Bowdoin, the nation’s top-ranked team. The Bobcats led 47-43 early in the extra period, but the Polar Bears scored the final eight points of the game to win, 51-47.

Bowdoin, now 26-0, claimed the conference’s automatic NCAA Tournament bid, while ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ finished the season 19-8.

The men’s basketball team fell to Williams, 94-86, in the semifinal round on Saturday. The Bobcats finished the season 18-8, tying the program record for wins in a season. The team also set a record for 3-pointers in a season with 268, shattering the previous record by 60.

For more on ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Athletics, including complete game stories from the weekend, be sure to visit /sports.xml.