AMHERST, Mass. – Colin Minicus '20 and Jack Norton '19 scored four goals each as the No. 11 Amherst College men's lacrosse team earned a 14-11 victory over Springfield College in Wednesday afternoon's NCAA Division III Championship Second Round contest at Pratt Field at Lehrman Stadium. With the win, Amherst improves to 13-4 on the season, and advances to the NCAA Third Round on Saturday, May 13 at Bates College (15-1) in Lewiston, Maine. Springfield concludes its season, 12-5 overall. In a hard-fought contest, both sides scored four goals each in the first quarter, two goals apiece in the third quarter, and three goals each in the fourth quarter. Amherst held a 5-2 advantage in scoring the second stanza to help stake its three-goal victory. Springfield got the scoring started in the first period as Ty Daugstrup netted an unassisted goal at the 8:10 mark. Amherst was quick to answer through Minicus who found the back of the net just 22 seconds later. In less than a minute, the Pride regained the lead on a goal by Brendan Boss, assisted by Kyle Dillon, but the Mammoths responded once more to know the game at 2-2 when Ian Kadish '18 scored on a feed from Jimmy McAfee '20 with 6:09 to play in the opening quarter. Norton then netted the first of his markers at the 4:44 mark (assisted by Brogan Mahon '19), before Daugstrup tallied his second of the frame to make it 3-3 with an assist from Duncan Preston. Mahon then struck pay dirt for Amherst with 1:07 to play, before Tom Hurley leveled the game once more at 4-4 with 13 ticks on the clock. The Mammoths exploded out of the gate in the second quarter as Jack Wolff '18 fired in an unassisted goal to start a stretch of five straight scores for Amherst. Norton and Chris Albanese '17 added unassisted tallies to make it 7-4, before Minicus added a goal with help from Trenton Shore '19 to make it 8-4 with 9:56 to play in the first half. Another Norton strike – this one assisted by Albanese – gave the hosts a five-goal 9-4 lead with 4:22 to play. Springfield halted the run when Tim Cozens scored on a pass from Jack Vail, before Vail found the back of the cage himself (from Cameron Glover), to make it 9-6 at intermission. The Pride continued to close the gap early in the third stanza as Preston and Dom Abate connected for back-to-back goals early in the frame to pull the visitors to within one at 9-8 with 11:44 to play in the quarter. Albanese then found Minicus on an extra-man opportunity to make it 10-8, before a laser from McAfee with 11 seconds left in the period gave Amherst an 11-8 cushion heading to the fourth quarter. The fourth quarter saw the teams exchange goals as Brett Inglesby '18 started the scoring for the Mammoths in the period following a dish from Norton at the 11:59 mark. Norton and Minicus (from Albanese) added goals for Amherst, while Preston, Boss (from Lucas Habich) and Hurley each found the back of the net for the Pride to set the final score at 14-11. BY THE NUMBERS Amherst goalie Cody Tranbarger '17 earned the win between the pipes totaling 16 saves in addition to picking up four ground balls. McAfee led the team with eight ground balls, while Jordan Sanford '19 and Dylan Finazzo '20 followed with seven and six respectively. Defensively, McAfee and Uzoma Egbuchulam '17 caused a pair of turnovers each for the Mammoths, while Finazzo was 17-for-29 in faceoffs. Jake Reynolds suffered the loss for Springfield, making 10 saves in the effort, while Matthew LaCroix led all players with nine ground ball pickups. BEYOND THE BOX SCORE Amherst and Bates will meet for the first time in the NCAA postseason on Saturday. The Mammoths fell to the Bobcats, 23-17 on Sunday, March 12 in Lewiston, Maine earlier this season. Bates earned a 23-10 victory over Plattsburgh State in other NCAA Second Round action on Wednesday afternoon to punch its ticket to the third round.