From April 28 through May 11, Amherst was mired in its worst offensive stretch of the season, going 4-2 and failing to reach double-digit runs in any of those six games, something it had done 10 times prior to April 28.
After a 17-4 victory over Avon Lake to clinch its second straight Southwestern Conference title May 19, however, it is safe to say the Comets’ offensive woes are firmly in the rearview mirror.
They have now scored 32 runs in the last three days in wins over Riverside, St. Ignatius and Avon Lake and have recorded double-digit hit totals in all three games.
“We went through about a week where we hadn’t been good offensively,” Amherst coach Matt Rositano said. “But now we’re swinging the bats well and putting together disciplined, relentless at-bats. They say hitting is contagious, and we’ve got it going and we’re passing it to the next guy.”
“We’ve had a lot of momentum the past three or four days,” junior Eli Toyoda said. “We’ve really been breaking out with our hitting again, and it’s great to do that going into the playoffs.”
It didn’t take the Comets much time to get their bats going against the Shoremen, scoring three in the first on an RBI single from Harrison Schneider and a two-run double from Zach Diedrick.
Amherst scores three in the first on an RBI single from Harrison Schneider and a two-run double from Zach Diedrick.@MJournalSports @ASHSBaseball pic.twitter.com/qdunH95uOQ
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
Avon Lake pulled one back in the second on an RBI double from Adam McFadden, but Cole Charles crushed his third home run of the season, a three-run shot, to make it 6-1 Amherst in the top of the fourth.
Adam McFadden gets Avon Lake on the board in the second with an RBI double.@MJournalSports @shoremenbats pic.twitter.com/ZcdVuoAkx2
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
Cole Charles blasts a three-run home run to right to make it 6-1 Amherst in the fourth.@MJournalSports @ASHSBaseball pic.twitter.com/6wDYsRcVHM
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
The Shoremen didn’t go quietly, however, scoring three runs off Cael Charles in the bottom of the fourth to make it 6-4 on a pair of run-scoring singles from Tyler Fenton and Chase Cartwright, marking the first time this season that Charles has allowed multiple earned runs in a start.
Avon Lake gets three in the fourth on singles from Tyler Fenton and Chase Cartwright. Amherst leads 6-4 after four.@MJournalSports @shoremenbats pic.twitter.com/wEjDqgVwqc
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
“I thought we were phenomenal at the plate,” Avon Lake coach Kevin Collins said. “We laid off his off-speed, didn’t chase too much, and we attacked the fastball. We’ve seen good pitching all year, so that hasn’t been an issue for us.”
Neither team scored in the fifth, with Avon Lake starter JJ Bradley, who didn’t find out he was starting until just before the game began, finishing a solid start with a 1-2-3 fifth.
Bradley works a 1-2-3 third, thanks to some excellent defense from Josh Bobrowski and his first K of the game.@MJournalSports @shoremenbats pic.twitter.com/0Lon4jFPfh
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
“JJ did a tremendous job,” Collins said. “For him to come out and compete against a great team was phenomenal, and we’re really proud of what he did today.”
The bottom of the fifth was anything but simple for Charles, who had to get out of a bases-loaded jam to keep Amherst in front, 6-4.
Charles forces a flyout to strand the bases loaded in the fifth. Amherst leads 6-4 as Cole Hahn enters the game for Avon Lake.@MJournalSports @ASHSBaseball pic.twitter.com/O3xlWaL2mD
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
“In that situation, where it’s a tight game, he was able to bear down and work through the stuff he was going through,” Rositano said. “He got us out of the inning and gave our bats another chance.”
The Comets took advantage of that chance immediately, sending 12 batters to the plate in the sixth and scoring seven runs, with six of them coming on a two-run single from Cooper Bingham and a grand slam from Toyoda.
Cooper Bingham rips a single of the glove of the shortstop to plate two and put Amherst up 8-4 in the sixth.@MJournalSports @ASHSBaseball pic.twitter.com/QjWNnGL9na
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
Eli Toyoda breaks the game open with a grand slam to left-center to put Amherst up 12-4 in the sixth.@MJournalSports @ASHSBaseball pic.twitter.com/L4WVgFlTkl
— Will Cunningham (@willocunningham) May 19, 2026
“I couldn’t see where it went at first,” Toyoda said. “But as soon as I saw that it was elevated pretty well and the wind was taking it, I knew.”
As good as Amherst’s entire lineup was in the win, Toyoda was the best of the bunch, going 3-for-4 with six RBI and three runs scored after he added a two-run ground-rule double and scored on a groundout as part of a four-run seventh that put Amherst up, 17-4.
“I was just hunting fastballs in my zone,” he said. “If they come first pitch, I like to see that, but even in deep counts, I trust myself to battle and get a pitch I like.”
“Guys like Diedrick, Toyoda, Gavin Ford, Tyler Denn, Nick Wilkinson give our lineup so much more depth,” Rositano said. “You’ve got all the big names at the top and in the middle of the lineup, but there’s not anybody in our lineup who you can take it easy on, because if you miss your pitch, we’re going to make you pay.”
THE SCORE (MAY 19)
Amherst 17, Avon Lake 4