Yesterday afternoon brought a battle of the freshmen, and as the scoreboard clearly showed, the Jumbos came out on top.
The baseball team defeated UMass Dartmouth 13-3 yesterday, as rookie David Gibbs pitched his way to victory in his first career start at Huskins Field, handily defeating Corsair freshman Rob Forcier.
It was the second start of Gibbs' career, as the young righthander lost 3-2 to Methodist on March 21, in the sixth game of an 11-game spring break road trip. He entered yesterday's game with an ERA of 9.00 on the season, and was given a huge opportunity to prove himself in a rare midweek start. Luckily for the Jumbos, Gibbs was undaunted by the task.
"There wasn't any pressure," Gibbs said. "I was just trying to go out there and pitch better than I have been pitching. I pitched well in the only other start I had, so I had some confidence coming into today. I tried to do better than I did when I came out of the bullpen."
Indeed, Gibbs did better, not allowing a single earned run in six innings of work, and surrendering just four hits, while striking out six Corsairs. At one point, he retired eight-straight batters, and he kept UMass Dartmouth hitless in innings three through five. Two of Gibbs' classmates, Jordan Goldberg and Alex Perry, then entered the game in the late innings, as Goldberg pitched two innings and Perry handled the ninth.
"[Goldberg] did a good job," coach John Casey said. "He gave us six innings, which was exactly what we wanted. He didn't want him to throw any more than that, pitch-wise. And Jordie did really well - he threw two innings in very few pitches, so it worked out well."
While Goldberg was busy shutting down the Corsairs, the Jumbo offense jumped out to a huge lead.
Freshman Corey Pontes, who led the Jumbos with a 3-for-4 performance and four runs scored, started the second-inning Tufts rally, singling and later scoring on an RBI single from classmate Caleb Sims. The Jumbos scored two runs in the second and later added four in the third en route to the 13-3 victory.
"Thirteen runs," Gibbs said. "You can't do much better than that. They were pretty good."
One downside to the Jumbos' blowout win was the temporary loss of senior tri-captain Bryan McDavitt. At the center of the offensive action in the fourth, McDavitt jumpstarted the two-out rally with a single to right-center, but the Jumbo first baseman hobbled off the field.
"He just felt tight in his calf," Casey said. "[Keeping him in the game] wasn't worth the risk, [but] I would expect him to be back by Friday."
The Corsairs finally got to Gibbs in the sixth inning, as junior Dylan Zygmont drew a walk with one out to start things off, and two freshmen - Jeff Macchi and Joe Albano - singled. Zygmont and Macchi later scored on an error by third baseman Sims.
"They were good hitters," Gibbs said. "But I don't think they were as good as what I faced down south, or what we've been facing the past couple weekends. But I still had to go out there and pitch. You can't leave balls up - you've got to hit your spots, and let your team make the plays."
With one midweek game behind them and another quickly approaching, the Jumbos still have a lot of work to do this week. Div. II foe Bentley awaits Tufts tomorrow afternoon, and Casey will have to make sure not to overextend his pitching staff.
"We have nine games in the next six days, if you count our JV games," Casey said. "We've got to get our guys some work, especially now, at the end of the year. We want to make sure we've got enough pitching to cover Wednesday, and we want to have the right guys lined up for the weekend."
As such, Casey has yet to name a starting pitcher for tomorrow's game. He's saving his rotation for this weekend's NESCAC East series with Colby, a series that will decide the division champion, and he's already used Gibbs, Goldberg and Perry. The question remains as to how Casey will divvy up tomorrow's innings.
"We'll see," Casey said. "We'll see how their arms feel, and we're probably going to split up the game. How many innings the guys throw is all going to depend on how their arms feel."
