From first pitch to final out, Tuesday was an ugly afternoon for the baseball team.
Luckily for Tufts, however, it was even uglier for the visiting Mass. Maritime Buccaneers. Despite allowing the Bucs to rally for a five-run first inning, the Jumbos came back and secured a 17-7 victory at Huskins Field, improving to 4-0 at home with their eighth consecutive win overall.
"We're not satisfied with the way we played," said senior tri-captain Brian Casey, who went 2-for-5 and scored three runs. "Our goal is to play every pitch of every inning hard, and we didn't quite do that. We're still trying to put together a complete game, and we haven't done that yet."
Despite the Jumbos' current hot streak, the win was less than encouraging, as this was the same Mass. Maritime team that Tufts blanked last year, 20-0, as six Jumbo pitchers combined for a six-hit shutout. This time around, the Jumbos struggled early, making a few miscues on the mound and in the field, allowing the Buccaneers to stay in the game.
"We didn't play well," coach John Casey said. "It doesn't matter who we're playing - it matters how we play, and that's the disappointing part of it. It doesn't matter if we're playing the '27 Yankees or whoever, we can only control how we play, and I don't think we were ready."
The Buccaneers jumped on senior pitcher Carlos Lopez in the first inning, tagging him for five runs, three of them earned, on six hits. Casey pulled Lopez midway through the first, giving freshman David Gibbs the ball to finish the inning.
"I was disappointed, because he's better than that," coach Casey said of Lopez. "We talked a lot about him having to be really, really loose on a day like today, because it's hard to be loose. And his pitches weren't moving - the ball was straight, and it was up."
Though the Jumbos fell behind 5-0 in the first inning, they stormed back into the game in the bottom of the first. Bucs' senior Craig Backstrom gave up the five runs of his own in the first inning, despite only allowing three hits.
"We just took advantage of being able to run on them," Brian Casey said. "We got good jumps off of their pitchers and we were able to be aggressive on the base paths. One of our goals this season is to be aggressive, and to put pressure on the other teams, and I think we did that well."
A slew of other miscues, including two walks and two wild pitches, let the Jumbos eventually tie the game on a double-steal by freshman Caleb Sims and sophomore Eric Catalanotti.
"It was good to come back and get the five [runs] right back," coach Casey said. "Especially on a day like today, you don't know if it's going to go five, seven or nine [innings]."
Tufts was relentless after the five-run first, piling on 10 more runs in the second inning and pulling away. Despite the Jumbos' big lead, however, the team believed the offense could have been even stronger, considering its 20-run onslaught in last year's match-up with the Buccaneers.
"We didn't hit well at all," coach Casey said. "But we put some pressure on them, and we ran again. We ran a couple of times to take us out of double plays, and that was good. But we got complacent again, and we struck out 11 times today. We didn't get good at-bats."
Fortunately for the Jumbos, their pitching remained strong even after their offense fizzled. Coach Casey handed the rest of the game over to the freshmen on his pitching staff, and they did not disappoint. Three rookies - Gibbs, Jordan Goldberg and Thomas Hill - teamed up to pitch the game's last eight and a third innings.
"They did a good job for us," Brian Casey said. "They got the job done. [Goldberg] did a good job, striking out six batters for us, and Gibbs and Hill got the job done too. For those guys to come in there and pitch the way they did, it helped us a lot."
Gibbs pitched through the end of the fourth, allowing two runs in his three and two-thirds innings of work, while Goldberg and Hill combined for five shutout innings the rest of the way. Goldberg was especially impressive, allowing just one hit in four innings of work, and striking out six Buccaneers.
"I thought Goldberg did a great job picking us up, and I thought Hill did a good job too," coach Casey said. "Those two freshmen have been throwing strikes for us all year - it's all they do. They've been really good for us."
With a 15-7 lead through five innings, the Jumbos still weren't satisfied. They picked up another run in the sixth, taking advantage of back-to-back doubles from the Casey brothers - Brian and sophomore Kevin - and the final run in the eighth off the bat of freshman Corey Pontes.
"Kevin did a nice job hitting the ball down the right field line, getting that run in for us late," coach Casey said. "We were just sitting on our butts, while they got one, and got one, and got another. So it was good for us to get a couple of runs back, and Pontes did a good job hustling."
While the offense wasn't firing on all cylinders, it's hard to be discouraged by a 17-run effort. Still, this team will be a lot happier with a more consistent offensive performance.
"We went through a couple at-bats during that game where we thought we could have put together a couple more runs," Brian Casey said. "But that's baseball - nothing ever falls into place exactly the way you plan it out."
